


BB The Camera

by VioletVision



Category: Beauty and the Beast (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Butt Dialing, F/M, Humor, I Ship It, Mild Language, Romance, Shipping, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 07:37:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 31,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12228474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VioletVision/pseuds/VioletVision
Summary: Catherine finds herself getting ready to take photos of the illustrious hottie Vincent Keller who is all the rage in the news for being a Beast.





	1. Conservatory

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU where people know that Vincent is a beast. Her mother never died because Vincent made it in time. You will see hints about Evan being married to Heather. Most info from cannon that I used for this fic is from season 1, but this is not a cannon fic.

Catherine checked the battery on her Leica M9 Titanium camera knowing good and well that it was fine. 

The man in front of her looked familiar, but she could not place him. Yes, she was well aware that Evan had written a book about the man. His name was Vincent Keller, and he allowed Evan to include personal details about him in his book for a 20% share in the profit. Every major news media machine constantly flashed photos of him just about every hour on the hour. None of them were of him in his beast form. 

But, she could not let go of the feeling that she had seen him somewhere else in her private life. 

“Is here ok?” The deep gravelly voice prompted.

Catherine’s eyes flicked up to his dark hazel eyes having no idea what he just said. “Excuse me?” 

“For the photo, is here ok?” Vincent felt self conscious that the lovely attorney Catherine Chandler was about to take photos of him. 

He had not done any interviews or television talk shows since he was exposed as being the Beast that roamed New York City saving wounded people. He had rescued Evan Marks during a robbery, and Evan had found out his secret while comparing cases. Evan had published his findings and the government quietly shut Muirfield down. 

Vincent was thankful to Evan and agreed to let him use his personal account of the military experiments because he no longer needed to hide. If he was harmed now, everyone in the country would want answers. So the government and Muirfield left him alone. In exchange, he had to lie and say it was the enemy who experimented on him. And, he did so.

Catherine glanced around the massive Victorian-style glass building conservatory at the New York Botanical Garden. She was thankful that her mother and father had arranged for the Conservatory to be closed to everyone but them. “Yes, this is very nice. Heather suggested the Conservatory saying it would look more natural.”

“Heather?” Vincent stepped under a massive branch that formed an arch way. He ducked to the side so the leaved vines hanging down would not smack him in the face. 

“My sister. She’s married to Evan.” Catherine ran her eyes over Vincent’s dark green shirt then to the light blue button up that was under it. She pondered that he was over dressed for the surroundings. 

“Oh, that Heather. Yes, I met her last week.” Vincent watched Catherine gaze over his chest. 

He almost snapped his fingers there to get her attention then bring his hand up to his eyes, but he doubted she would get the joke. He was still not use to interacting with people since he had been in a self imposed exile for the last 9 years. 

“Hot.” Catherine noticed she said it out loud and looked up to his eyes seeing he had been watching her look over his body. She felt embarrassed as she felt a slight flush burn on her face. It was odd for her because usually she didn’t feel so self conscious no matter if someone was famous or if it was a very attractive guy. 

Vincent raised his eyebrows and tipped his head to the side hearing her heart speed up. He was not sure how to take what she said. 

“I mean um. It’s hot in here. Hot.” Of their own accord, her eyes flicked over his body. “You’re hot, but I meant it is hot in here.” Catherine waved her hand to the side fearing she would break out singing any moment like Nelly.

Catherine wanted to smack herself in the face because she just noticed she called him hot and kept stumbling over her words. She checked her camera again not knowing how to get out of what she just said. 

She remembered Evan saying how disgusting it was that hundreds and thousands of women were falling all over Vincent and even created fan sites for him just because he was not entirely all human anymore. Even Heather told her that Vincent had to set up a fake email and mailing address because there was a flood of correspondence being sent to him from women who only had one thing on their minds. 

Catherine noticed that it had been a couple of minutes and she was still adjusting things on her camera. Vincent had not spoken. 

She forced herself to look at him again. His eyes seemed to dance with amusement and boyish charm as his mouth threatened to grin. 

Catherine nodded. “Yes, better.”

She lifted her camera and took several photos of him till his face went blank. She didn’t know why he stopped and lowered the camera.

“That was good. Just smile a little for me. Think of all of the hundreds of fans who want to hear everything about you.”

He started frowning. 

“Um…no. We’ll take the Beast photos later. Right now, I need to get some before photos. Smile. Think of all the beautiful women who throw themselves at you.” 

Catherine hoped he would smile at her again with that slight grin like he was thinking something playfully naughty. She fully planned to keep a copy of the photos for herself. 

His frown deepened to a scowl. 

She lowered the camera to her waist wanting to know what was wrong. “What?”

“You said I was hot.” Vincent took one step toward her still scowling. 

Catherine instantly thought he was saying that she had sexually harassed him. “I’m sorry. Just making an observation. I meant it was…is hot in here, and I thought about all the clothing you are wearing.”

She stopped talking knowing that was not helping it. She now regretted having shot her mouth off to Heather saying the photos the professional took of Vincent did not show enough sex appeal for the public and that she could take better photos of him. 

“I mean. It’s a warm tropical setting and it might look strange for you to have so many layers on.” Catherine tried to explain as she waved her hands around hoping he did not complain to Heather or Evan that she was acting like one of his fanatic followers. 

She felt terror that Evan or Tess would find out she had joined one of the sites and her username was HotForTheBeast.

Vincent stopped scowling and grinned full out this time. 

Catherine quickly snapped a dozen photos then lowered the camera when he started frowning again. 

“Don’t be sorry that you think I’m … hot.” 

Vincent didn’t exactly know what to say to her, but he did not want her apologizing if she found him attractive. Of all the women on the planet, he only cared what she thought of him. He had felt this way about her since he saved her and her mother nine years ago from two gunmen. 

“Then why are you frowning at me?” Catherine felt a little confused.

“You mentioned people wanting to know about me and women throwing themselves at me.” Vincent glanced at the ground then back up at her. “ I don’t like that.” 

Catherine could not help herself and focused on smiling sexy at him. “You prefer to pursue instead of being pursued.”

“Something like that.” Vincent had a wickedly dark predatory expression on his face.

Catherine did not even take her eyes off of his face as she slowly raised the camera. She didn’t bother looking into the viewer but snapped a few photos. 

His bark of laughter snapped her out of her daze, and she laughed along with him.

And with that, they felt comfortable around each other.

“So where do you want me? Is this really ok because I don’t mind anywhere you want me?” Vincent spoke the words letting her see that he knew exactly how suggestive it sounded and he didn’t care if it sounded corny. 

Catherine eyed him over again then pointed at his shirts. “Please gawd just take off the shirt. You have to be sweating to death in here dressed for winter like that. It’s like ninety in here or something.”

“Thank you.” He undid his green shirt then stopped. 

“Take it off.” Catherine smiled at him.

He did. Then he unbuttoned the second knowing she was watching every inch of his chest being exposed for her. 

He waited again watching the heat in her lovely eyes.

“Might as well take it off too. Sex sells.” Catherine could not believe she just said that and that the mysterious Vincent Keller was obeying her. 

It wasn’t until the second shirt dropped to the floor of the botanical conservatory that she knew that he was not obeying her. It was a trap, and she fell for it. There was no way she was making it out of this conservatory without letting Vincent strip and ravish her body. She was not even remotely bothered by that fact as her body hummed with anticipation. 

Catherine wondered absently how many thousands of women wished and dreamed for just a glimpse of him in real life. And here he was, stripping because of her suggestions.

The mere thought of it was intoxicating enough even if he was not moving and flexing in front of her like a panther. He was deadly and for a short time he was all hers. 

He stood looking away as if not concerned that she was watching him while she took her fill. But what he didn’t know is that she would never get enough. She would always want more from him, and he would always be more than willing to accommodate her. 

Vincent heard the camera snapping as she walked around him humming approval to herself as she envisioned licking his lightly damp skin. She wanted to strip and slide her naked body over him biting as she went. 

“Boots. Socks.” Catherine commented somehow sounding calm.

Vincent removed them even as she snapped photos of his massive biceps and his muscular back that flexed. 

“Bench. Lounge.” 

Vincent moved over to a dark green bench that sat among ferns. He leaned back lounging on it and hungrily watched as she took dozens of photos of his half naked body. 

Catherine moved around him taking photos from different angles no longer thinking that these would be used for Evan’s book. She wanted them for herself. She wanted him for herself. 

She didn’t even notice that she practically climbed on him to take a few photos as she invaded his personal space. 

Vincent noticed. 

He could hear her heart racing as if his hands were already on her petite body. He could feel her breath fluttering over his skin. The light press of her thy on his knee caused the hardening length in his jeans to throb with need. He could smell that she was fully aroused and the fragrance was far headier then any store bought one. 

He almost reached out to her when his mind offered how stupid that would be because in a moment he would allow his other side out, and she might run from the glass building in horror. 

Catherine stopped taking photos when he frowned again. She noticed she was almost in his lap and backed away. 

“I think that will do.” Catherine checked knowing that she could take thousands more and the battery would still be fine. 

Catherine took another step back. “Ok, now I need you to stay where you are, but um…Beast out for me.”


	2. Reaction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catherine is taking photographs of Vincent for Evan’s new book. Catherine is still having problems concentrating and Vincent reacts to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Catherine is a fangirl of the Beast. Yes, you read correctly. Catherine is a Beastie.

Catherine knew that Evan had explained that he had given Vincent several treatments to help him control his beast side. He could now become the Beast at will and could control when he went back to his full human form. 

Catherine checked the battery again for what felt like a dozen times before she let her eyes go back to the man on the bench. 

She did not fear him, but found him fascinating. 

When she saw the photos the professional took of him, she noticed his eyes looked flat with almost no expression. She now had dozens of photos with expressions that ranged from an adorable guy next door to a calculating predator who wanted to come out to play. 

Catherine now openly stared at his naked chest and abdomen guessing that the photographer was probably a man. She told herself that because she was a woman, and Vincent had probably responded more to her because of that. 

Vincent locked eyes with her and knew her interest in him would now end once she saw him change. 

He was only thankful knowing that once his Beast self was photographed and out in public then women would stop throwing themselves at him or pretending to be attacked to get his attention. The only problem was that he wanted to keep Catherine’s interest. 

Something clicked in Vincent’s mind, “Beast out?” 

Catherine forgot to breathe. Her face started turning light pink from the lack of oxygen and embarrassment. 

She sucked in air quickly and spoke even faster. “That’s what they call it right? Beasting out or beast out. They use the phrase everywhere.”

One of her hands frantically waved around before it went back to her expensive Leica M9 camera. She held the camera up and checked the settings. “Lighting is very good. Ready?”

Vincent knew it was not a phrase used in the news or on the television. He could not remember where he heard it, but he intended to check into it. 

“You want me to change, but what do you want me to do when I change?” Vincent did not move, but watched her visibly calm. He had no idea why the thought did not make her more nervous instead of making her seem more in control and relaxed. 

“Go ahead and change. I’ll just see how it goes.” Catherine was relieved they moved away from the last topic of her word choice. 

Vincent thought about it knowing that once in Beast form he would react more instinctively and be driven by emotions. 

“No. When I’m like that, it’ll be harder to give me directions. If you tell me now and I concentrate on it, then it will be easier to do it once I’m that way. When I’m…Beast…I’m more primal, but still me. It’s hard to explain. In the past, I lost most control and even blacked out not knowing what was even happening. Since several treatments, I don’t have the black outs and I have more control.” He realized he started to ramble and told himself to be quiet.

Vincent was not about to tell her that her own mother worked with Evan to help come up with the treatments. Evan had signed official documentation with the government that he would not release the fact that she was helping him. Evan had questioned how she had known so much about it in the first place. They lied to him saying she had worked under cover with the enemy and letting that information out could get her killed.

Evan did not want to risk his mother in law’s life, so he kept quiet about that part. 

“Alright, just stay where you are, but lean forward. I’m going to take pecks…pics as you change then a few more after that. Ok?” Catherine inwardly slapped herself a few times for the mess up of words. 

He nodded yes knowing that she probably would not get to take many photos. The professional photographer who tried this once before had backed out of the room tripping over his own feet. Evan had assured him that the man regularly took photographs in war zones and would be up for the task. He wasn’t. 

Catherine was having a hard time concentrating on her task. All she wanted to do was strip his pants off of him, climb over his muscular frame, take every last heated inch of him into her body and ride the hell out of him till she came screaming. She added a mental note that she could do all of that and snap photos of him as she rode him. She contemplated that video might be better for that and wondered what her fellow Beasties would suggest. 

Catherine’s lips parted, and she breathed in deeply then out. She pictured doing everything she just thought. She told herself that they were both single and consenting adults. She started adding up all the reasons why they should just go for it. At the end of the list, she added something a fellow Beastie had posted before…his deep gravely fuck me now voice. 

She moistened her lips playing the sound of his voice saying the word primal. She wondered what he would do if she said just that. If she said, fuck me now. She pictured him ripping her clothing off of her, biting her neck while licking/sucking and growling as he claimed her body as his possession. 

Primal. She kept hearing his deep voice saying the word. 

A dizzying sensation came over her, so she adjusted her stance and flipped her hair back out of her face. Her body felt ready to go, but she held herself back while trying to keep quiet. 

She cussed at herself internally knowing that she was acting just like all of the other women that were throwing themselves at him. 

She questioned herself. Did she think he was insanely hot…yes. Did she want to strip naked and ride him till a shattering orgasm took over her entire body while he growled out release from sliding in and out of her…yes gawd yes. Did she care what he thought and who he was as a person…yes. 

It was the trifecta of hell. She bet that everyone thought he was hot first, they wanted to have sex with him second…then she stopped on the third item in order. She questioned how many of them cared what he thought and who he was inside?

Catherine felt even more turned on, but had concluded that she was not just one of the mindless bimbos that just wanted his body or wanted his uniqueness and fame as a Beast. 

She wanted to know him personally. She wanted to know what his life was like growing up and if he wanted to try to be a doctor again. She knew she wanted him as a person with all of his complexities and not just his body. 

“But what a body.” Catherine whispered to herself as she thought about being turned on and started playing with the camera as a way to vent. She turned the power on the camera off then on again. She wished it was that easy to shut down her raging need for Vincent at least till she could take some stupid photos. 

“What?” His heightened senses allowed him to hear exactly what she said, but he wanted to know what it meant because it could mean a couple of things. 

Catherine almost dropped the camera then fought to make something up as she took off her white long sleeve shirt. She didn’t want to start sweating in front of him and she thought the pink shirt underneath showed off more cleavage. If anyone was going to sweat, she decided it would be him. 

“The body of the camera. It’s titanium.” She pictured straddling him and in her moment of release accidentally dropping the camera. “If it gets dropped, it will be ok.” 

Vincent wondered why she would drop it, but she had just now almost lost her grip because she took off on of her shirts. He thought about that…she took off a shirt and lost her grip. He wanted her to grip him like she was holding the camera, and he wanted her next shirt off as well. 

He felt confused because he heard her heart racing as if she was afraid, but her body sent off signals of arousal. 

Even in the humid heat of the Conservatory, her nipples were hardened and pressing against the thin pink top. His eyes roved over the outline of a bra wishing she was not wearing it. He wanted to fully see the reaction that her body had to him. He was convinced now that her heart raced not out of fear, but out of need. 

Over all of the years that he watched over her, he had never once seen her this distracted. She was always calm and never acted nervous around men no matter what they looked like. He wondered if that made him special. 

Vincent took in a slow deep breath luxuriating in the heady feminine sent that floated on the air around him letting him know that her body wanted his. Her sent surrounded him as if it was holding him. Tempting him. But what he wanted more was the feel of her arms wrapped around him. He had wanted it for years, and now having only known him a short amount of time she seemed to want him too. 

She tried to focus on what she would need to do with the camera, but her hands wanted to run over his toned chest and impossibly lickable abs. She clenched her teeth as if she were sinking them into his shoulder. Her tongue flicked behind her teeth as if it was trying to taste his skin. 

Her greenish eyes darted to his shoulder then down to his abdomen. She scrutinized every dip and rise of muscle. He sat up straight and her fingers flexed scraping her nails against the camera as if they were gripping his body. 

She had never felt so attracted like this before. It was as if her body was taking control. It was maddening. 

Catherine pulled her eyes back and inspected absolutely nothing on the camera, but just let her dilated eyes appear to be focusing there. She thought that must be how Vincent felt before he gained some control over his Beast side. 

She thought about something she posted in reply to another fangirl saying she would not mind a little beast in her as well. She thought maybe she does already because she was losing a power struggle with her own body. She pondered that she would be on her knees any moment now undoing his pants. She further thought about the other Beasties reaction if she posted a pic of her doing just that. 

A quiet giggle escaped her lips before she was able to stop herself. She cussed at herself internally telling herself that attorneys don’t giggle. The other part of her brain answered in reply that fangirls do. 

Catherine had never felt so frustrated in all of her life. Even when she fought with her father when she told him that she didn’t want to join his firm, she didn’t feel this frustrated. It was as if her body and her brain were traitors trying to make her look stupid in front of Vincent. 

Vincent leaned forward putting his forearms on his knees and leaned closer, but tried to stay on the bench which was what she wanted. He asked himself dozens of questions as to why she was laughing when she knew he was about to Beast out as she put it. 

“What?” He inquired wanting to delay turning into his beast form. 

“Shut up.” She thought she was just thinking it in her head to herself, but the words came out. She felt paranoia that he might think she meant it toward him. “I mean shutter up…speed. Shutter speed. I should have brought my other camera.” 

“Do you want to wait and try this again another day, so you can bring your other camera?” The tension from wondering what she giggled about dropped. It was as if all of the muscles in his body sank lower when he breathed out. He wondered now if she had been thinking about someone else and it was the cause of her body’s reaction. 

He wondered if she was so distracted because she met a new guy that he didn’t know about. He felt jealously that her thoughts about another man were making her almost drop the camera, bring the wrong camera and giggle. 

Catherine contemplated buying another camera. But, this one had cost her twenty thousand, which was a discount because she had been a friend. There was no way she was buying another camera. She contemplated if he knew what kind of camera it was and what she could possibly find that was a better camera. She contemplated asking her mother’s friend Jessica for her Hasselblad H4D-60. 

She shook her head no. “It’s ok. This’ll do.”

His mind offered she brought the wrong camera then laughed about it. She said she didn’t want to get the right camera or do this again. He concluded it must not be important to her to be here with him.

Vincent lowered his eyes to the path in front of him. He believed himself a fool for thinking that she was turned on by him. At this point, he didn’t even think she wanted to be here. He wondered if Heather was playing match maker and set this up. Catherine was here being nice to him for her sister’s sake. 

Just in the instant he contemplated that she might be there because she felt sorry for him then he heard her voice.

“You can start changing now…if you want too.” Her voice dropped off as she noticed the look of defeat on his face. 

He didn’t want to now. He wanted to run. He wanted to hide. He wished he never came here. He would have happily continued for years to watch her from afar with the hope that they might have a connection then to meet up with her and she pitied him. 

She took a step forward wondering if she said something wrong when sad hazel eyes met hers. 

She already had her finger on the camera to take a picture if he started transforming and she started at the sight of the intensity of is sadness. 

It caused her finger to press down slightly on the camera button even though she did not mean to do it because his intensity startled her. The camera flashed taking a photo. 

He sunk lower and his gaze went to his hands. He thought that everyone wanted a look at the freak, and she was no different. He couldn’t even muster anger because he knew she was not to blame. Someone being different caused a need to understand the differences. 

Vincent told himself to stop wallowing in self pity or she’d start patting on him like he was a small child.

Too late. 

Catherine discarded the camera on the ground not even caring about it. Vincent was in some type of pain. 

Her mind raced over the possibilities of it being from the treatments. He was the only one of his kind in existence as far as anyone knew, so there was no real way to know for sure if it could hurt him even with all the lab tests.

She knew he had been a doctor saving lives, then he was in the military keeping civilians safe while risking his own life and then he was experimented on like a lab rat. She couldn’t even begin to guess what other horrors happened to him. 

Catherine worried something or someone was hurting him. She would be damned if anyone hurt him now. In that moment, she knew that she would protect him with her own life if need be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw this going a different way, but my hands typed it out like this. Making Muirfield back off and tossing Heather at Even making him back off does not just magically fix the pain inside that has built up for years. He is just a human…well…not just a human. And a hot “not just a human” at that. *winks*


	3. Explanation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to tie things together…physical/emotional, past/present. I am also going to allude to other works in this chapter. It just feels right because in our own everyday life things make us think about other creations, so the characters should too. Remember, this is AU.

Catherine had her hands on his shoulders trying to lean down to see his face. “Are you ok?” 

She gave up when he cringed, and she kneeled in front of him as tears started to form in her eyes. “Do you need me to call Evan or an ambulance?” 

Vincent’s voice was deeper than usual, and he would not make eye contact. “No.”

“Is it because you were trying to change?” Catherine reached her hands up brushing his hair back from his eyes and cupped his face. 

“Talk to me, Vincent.” Catherine pleaded with him.

She had a sudden fear that he would drop dead at any moment. She fretted that she would find out later that he needed medical attention and she didn’t get help. A picture of him laying there dead flashed in her mind. 

Her mother had always warned her and Heather that people always say no that they don’t need to go to a hospital. She told them that it was their responsibility as the person who was not impaired to make that call if it needed to be made. 

Vincent heard her heart and breathing speed up as if she was in a flat out run. His eyes lifted, but he kept his head down. He saw the genuine concern that she felt. He knew that she was seconds away from dialing 911 on her cell.

“I’m fine.” Vincent tried to convince her with a half smile. “I’m ok.”

He didn’t look as bad as earlier, but she still did not let him go. “What happened?”

He contemplated making something up or diverting her attention to something else. He watched her knowing that he couldn’t. 

“You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to be.” The words were practically whispered, but caught every other word on the rasp of his voice. 

Catherine had no idea why he was saying that to her. “Yes, I know that.”

She reminded herself that Evan said he was in isolation for years and his social skills were not up to par for parties. Evan gave that as a reason why Vincent had not attended Thanksgiving dinner at her parent’s house. 

She guessed he misunderstood something she said.

“I want to be here. With you.” She whispered the words back at him as she tipped his face up toward hers so she could see him better. 

She knew his emotional state changed when she took that last photo and seconds before that when she laughed. 

“My finger was on the button and when I moved it snapped that last photo. I didn’t mean to take it. And, I um…giggled partially because I find you attractive and my brain started talking to me. Well, not a real voice, but…” She glanced up with a silly expression, “I started thinking crazy things about myself. I’ve seen things before that really weren’t there, sooooo.” She lowered her eyes to him again with a laugh, “Now I sound crazy, but it’s just me being me.”

Catherine knew if he wanted to look away that he could and her strength was no match for his. But, he let her move him so she could watch his expressions, and he stayed that way. 

Vincent watched her give him an explanation that she didn’t really need to, but knew it was for his benefit. She didn’t have to care what he thought, but apparently she did. 

It amused him that in this moment she was the happy fun girl that she usually was at her birthday parties. He was now on the receiving end of that infectious happiness that always reminded him of a little kitten excited with a new toy. 

After her parties, he would check in with her mother to see if she had any new results and he would pass on information from his roommate JT. It was set up that they had once a year meeting where they kept in touch about the research. Her mother had a burner phone to call if there were any signs of Muirfield, and he was thankful every time a year went by and burner phones were never used. 

“Ok.” Vincent felt the intense emotions of sadness decrease to the point of being tolerable. He glanced over her for signs of a lie and did not find any. 

She had never seen this side of him in the partial interviews and the pictures taken of him. To Catherine, he looked lost, uncertain and wounded. It was as if he didn’t know what to do, but he trusted her and let himself be open with her. 

She knew now that he kept himself hidden even when he stood in plain view. He protected himself by acting gruff or smiling fake plastic smiles for the cameras. She mused it might be the reason why she thought he looked void of emotion in the photos the other person took. 

“It’s ok. I’m not going to run screaming from the building if you transform.” She let her hands slide off of his face, and she instantly felt the loss of the connection. 

Her body pushed at her again letting her know just in case she forgot that she wanted him naked and growling covering her body with his strength. 

“Last guy did.” He had a wicked smile dancing on his face that appeared to be genuine. It was as if a darkness was lifted off of him. 

Catherine smirked back and sat back on her heals thinking of the Lord of the Rings. She changed her voice to sound like the actress. “I’m no man.”

He caught the reference and huffed approval knowing now she was a SciFi fan. He guessed that it might be some of the reason his medical condition was interesting to her. That he could handle…pity he could not.

Vincent felt relieved that she truly wanted to be there with him. He chided himself that he was overreacting to her giggle and the flash of the camera that now sat behind her on the ground. He told himself that earlier her attraction was to him and not someone she was thinking about. The idea calmed him and the last of the doubt and pain slipped away.

He thought he should tell her they met before in the past. He could not deny the need to tell her now before things went any further. For her to find out later, might be perceived as a betrayal or that he lied by hiding something from her. He corrected himself…if there was a later. 

He also worried that she might regret it if anything physical happened between them. He wanted her to feel a lot of things toward him and regret was not one of them.

“Do you remember when we first met?” 

Catherine remembered the question as being one that Arwen asked her romantic interest Aragorn. She knew the phrase because it was a scene that she had watched over and over again. She memorized every word, every movement and every detail down to the clothing and where the stood. She had even set a wallpaper on her computer to that scene for an entire year. 

It had been her obsession and always found it intriguing that the ruler of an entire people was out gallivanting as a Ranger in the wilderness. Strider, who was Aragorn the rightful heir to the throne, risked his life on countless occasions to save people who seemed to be of no consequence. She hid from her friends and family that she even wrote a few fanfictions where Arwen had visited him in the wild. 

She snapped back out of her thoughts about the movie and concentrated on what his quote implied. To Catherine’s knowledge she had never met Vincent before. Evan always found some reason why they should not meet, but Heather had set up this photo shoot. 

“I thought I had wandered into a dream.” He spoke the second part that was Aragorn’s reply with such conviction and emotion that she leaned forward trying to read every flicker of emotion on his face. She knew he was trying to tell her something important, but could not come out and say it. 

Vincent reached foreword and gathered a few strands of her dark hair into his fingers then pulled his hand back letting the silk slide over his skin. It was something he had done years ago when he saved her mother from being killed. 

He remembered showing up just after the gun fired one time. He managed to insert himself in front of Catherine’s mother then took a few hits before he lunged forward ripping the men to shreds. 

Vincent turned to the women still in his Beast form and went to them. 

Catherine was holding pressure on the bullet wound her mother sustained. He noticed that she had fell and hit her head on the car. She had taken out her braids with one hand in an attempt to inspect the wound herself and keep pressure on her mother’s wound. 

He remembered he reached forward intending to check Catherine’s head to see how big the gash was. She pulled back and it caused part of her hair to wrap around his hand. He slowly pulled his hand back letting her hair slide over his skin while he was still in Beast form. 

Sirens glared in the distance and he had to leave. As he ran for the tree line, he had heard her voice whisper. “I don’t know who you are, but thank you.” 

Vincent paused just at the trees and turned back to her. She was watching him. And, she continued to watch as he nodded once then went into the woods as police cars pulled into the saloon’s parking area.

Now, Vincent watched Catherine as she tipped her head as if trying to remember something.

He continued with the quote. “Long years have passed…”

Catherine registered him saying the next part of the quote as a dizzying sensation came over her. Her mind was trying to put the pieces together. 

Vincent skipped ahead before continuing using words from the scene, “I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.”

Catherine stopped trying to remember as her brain was blocking her as if protecting her. 

She focused on the quote he just spoke. The words impacted her like never before. 

This moment was more to her than any fantasy she had thought up, read about, written about or watched on television. A man, a very attractive and intriguing man, was saying the words to her and it appeared that he meant them. 

Vincent lifted his head toward the glass ceiling of the Conservatory and stretched his neck. He reached inside himself pulling up Beast. He exercised control so that it was very gradual. 

As he allowed his body to change, he knew that he would not look exactly the same as Catherine might remember. After the treatments calmed some of the effects, his transformations left him the same claws and raised veins, but his teeth stayed in place and his face did not contort quite as much. 

He could feel his black claws extending and his fangs lowering. He was thankful that his fangs only extended about a half an inch in comparison to his claws that extended about three inches. He could retract them, but it was painful. 

Night vision flickered on and off, and Vincent knew his eyes now glowed slightly gold. 

He tried to speak as he lowered his focus on Catherine, but only a growl came out. Speaking while in full Beast form was something he had not mastered yet. 

Catherine was still sitting on her heals when Vincent stretched, and he started to change. She watched transfixed like a rabbit hypnotized with a cobra’s dance and peering stare. His fingers had black talons coming out of them and there were bluish purple veins standing out on his neck, chest and arms. She also noted his face changed slightly. 

Vincent’s once hazel eyes turned golden as he lowered his head watching her. 

She opened her mouth to try to speak and ask him if he wanted her to get the camera when he growled at her flashing his fangs.

The sound exploded in her mind like gun fire. Instantly, images flashed then solidified of the night her mother was shot and almost killed by robbers outside the saloon where she worked in college. She felt the impact again as she spun smacking her forehead against a car door. Intense pain seared on her head where she had banged it nine years ago. 

Simultaneously, she could feel her mother’s sticky warm blood on her hands as she applied pressure trying to save her life. 

Flickers of almost video played before her eyes of a horrible monstrous beast towering over her and her mother taking gunfire. Her vision blurred from her injury but she could make out that the beast was shredding the men to death. She could hear her own voice speaking words of thanks before being swarmed by police and the EMT workers. 

She remembered hearing her mother say that there was a bear or a panther that attacked the men and that the beast had saved their lives. Catherine told everyone that she didn’t see anything because of her head injury, and they believed her.

Only one second had passed since he growled and her brain had processed everything so quickly. It was such a shock to have all those memories, feelings, sensations and images flood over her that her boot tipped causing her to tumble back on the floor of the Conservatory. 

Catherine was in total shock and almost started hyperventilating as she untangled her legs lying on the ground on her back. She was panting watching Vincent still sitting where he had been. 

His eyes were closed and his head was lowered again. She tried to sit up as he raised his hands gripping his head and rested his elbows on his knees. 

Vincent had watched her shock before her face contorted and she touched her forehead. He closed his eyes after he watched her look at her hands in disgust, and he believed it was because she had touched his face with them. 

He had no idea what was happening inside of her, and he believed his worst fears had just come to life before him. He closed his eyes and rested his head waiting for her to flee. She was already on the ground, and it sounded as if she was scooting backwards. 

“You’re him.” Catherine’s breathy voice floated toward him on the humid air. “You’re the…” She almost said beast, but changed her wording. “…one who saved us.” 

Vincent felt as if he was standing on the edge of a blade and his fate could tip to either side. 

One side was where she was just shocked to learn who he was, and she fully intended to stay. The second side was where she was disgusted with the way he looked and more terrified that he was the monster that ripped two men to pieces all those years ago, and she was about to leave forever. 

He literally tipped his head to one side then to another thinking of each option. 

Catherine believed he was trying to say no. She thought over what he had quoted before, over the images in her mind, and the man before her. “You’re him. I know you are.” 

Vincent stopped moving and dared to hope that it was the first possibility because she was not running at this point. He kept his eyes closed and his whole existence was the sound of her voice. 

It was something he craved all year during his wait to see her on her birthdays. He had even recorded her laughter and replayed it over and over. 

In the past, he felt his purpose in life was to use his medical skills to save people then later he used his body to protect people. Once he returned State side, there was no purpose to his life, but to keep her safe. 

He now needed her voice like a drowning man needed oxygen…with every fiber of his body on a cellular level. Without her, he felt that his life was over and he might as well be dead. 

“You saved us, and I thanked you.” Her voice finally sounded like her own to her ears. 

With her words, he opened his eyes and happily stepped off of the blade falling into his fate. 

Catherine finally moved past the shock that the wild animal beast that took bullets for her and her mother was the handsome intriguing man before her. 

All those years, she believed she went crazy because of all of her mother’s blood that covered her hands and arms. She believed that fate had tossed them a blessing by having a wild animal not attack the wounded smaller women covered in blood, but the armed men. 

She stood up shakily and took the couple of steps to the bench and sat down clasping her hands together. She leaned forward looking at his abdomen where she remembered seeing deliciously faded scars earlier. Her eyes fixed on them knowing they were bullet wounds. Bullets meant for her mother’s heart. 

Catherine gasped picturing what they would have done to her slender mother. She straightened and her hand went over her mouth as tears burned her eyes. Pressure built behind them that caused tension to spread down her neck as tears fell on her hand. 

Vincent’s hands dropped as he reverted back to himself. She was in pain and there was nothing he could do to help. There were no bad guys to kill. He didn’t know how to save someone from their own thoughts. 

He did the only thing he could think, and it was from a memory of when he was a doctor. He put his hand over her hand that was in her lap. 

Catherine visibly relaxed then spoke. “Those bullets would have killed her.”

Vincent sat quietly and remembered that you have to let someone talk at their own pace. 

“She would be dead now. Dead and in the ground.” Her voice broke off as she shook from the force of the emotions and the tears that would not stop. She pictured her father peering down into her mother’s casket saying good bye to the love of his life. The finality of it dug claws into her emotions as she knew that had been a possible outcome of those events if Vincent was not there.

Vincent’s arm went around her, and he pulled her into his lap pressing the side of her face into his chest. “It’s ok. Shhhhhh She’s ok. I’m here. You’re ok. Those men are gone, and they’re not coming back. It’s ok now.” 

His eyes scanned the area inside the glass building then toward the exit points. He relaxed knowing they were alone. It was still hard for him because he went for so long knowing that Muirfield was hunting him. He mentally reminded himself that he was ok as well. 

Catherine started to calm and the shaking subsided. She relaxed into the feeling of Vincent rocking her gently as he murmured again that everything was alright. His strong arms wrapped around her and his hand stroking her hair made her feel protected. Her tears stopped. 

She absently remembered hearing two police officers talk that day that they found rope and duct tape in the trunk of the robber’s car. They speculated if the perps knew a young college girl would be there alone and what they might have done to her.

They said it was an attempted robbery and kidnapping that ended in murder and an animal attack. One officer added that whichever young woman was taken that they would have ended up dead eventually. Catherine didn’t even want to think about what the men would have done to her after they killed her mother because nothing good came to mind. 

For the next few years, she refused to date or be alone with a man because she remembered what the police officers had said. It pushed her to concentrate on her classes and finally her job. 

“I always push them away.” Catherine spoke absently as she wiped tears and makeup from her eyes. 

“Who?” Vincent’s chest vibrated with his baritone voice. 

Catherine pressed back against his lightly moist chest hearing his steady heart beat. She wanted him to keep talking. It was helping. 

“Men. On some level, I’m always afraid. I keep them at arm’s length then I push them away.” Her words were whispered out as if the fact embarrassed her to admit it. 

“I know.” Vincent stopped rocking her and breathed in the scent of her hair. 

“You know?” Catherine tapped on his chest a couple of times with one finger. “How? And don’t say your Beast X-men powers let you read minds.” 

Vincent chuckled before he spoke. “Once a year…on your birthday, I check up on you to make sure you’re ok.”

Her eyes were open and focused up at his neck. She speculated over information that Evan gave her knowing that he must have just returned from overseas when he saved her. That was a time when he didn’t have control. He did not hurt her, but saved her. 

“Have you been stalking me?” It was a delicious idea that Vincent had been her secret stalker and protector over the years. She leaned back to see is face better. 

He loosened his grip and watched her still reddened eyes, “I wouldn’t go that far.” 

“So you stalk me and save people in your spare time.” She said it as a statement. 

“Ok, fine. Yes, but don’t tell JT if you meet him. He’ll flip out that I was around you when I was in a fugue state.” Vincent grinned at her as she smiled pushing the sadness away. 

“Evan said that JT was your roommate back then and he recently got married to a colleague, but what do you mean by fugue?” Her hand lifted and absently ran over his chest where her tears and makeup were smeared. 

“Um…fugue state is where I would Beast Out and have no memory about what I did or where I went. It happened quite a bit right when I saved Evan and he started giving me treatments. The blackouts were a side effect from the experiments.”

Catherine could see by his expression that he didn’t really want to talk about it. “Oh. And, sorry about the tears and makeup.” 

Vincent started becoming aware that her body was pressed against his. “Don’t worry about the face paint.”

“Alright.” Catherine smacked her hand down on his chest. “I think we’ve had enough drama for one day. Don’t you agree?” 

He nodded yes and wondered if she was leaving. His hand pressed on her thy. “You didn’t get your photo yet.” 

Catherine became very aware that he was touching her leg and that she was sitting in his lap. She blinked blankly wondering how she had not noticed. 

He continued after seeing her expression. “The before and after photo for the book. You didn’t take a Beasting out pic.”

Catherine was thinking of her weight where it was pressing and the placement of her hands. “Right.” 

She slowly stood up trying not to grind against him as it was evident that he was also aware that she was sitting in his lap. As she stood, she let her face come very close to his, and she saw his eyes flicker gold before he transformed back to his Beast form for her photo. 

He tipped his head to one side like he was going to put his mouth over her shirt and suck in her nipple that was pressed against the fabric pointing at him. 

When he didn’t, she went for the camera.

She purposefully bent over from the waist to pick up the camera that was on the ground. “I hope the heat and moisture is not messing with it.”

Vincent in his Beast form growled in approval of her action and choice of words. He envisioned gripping her hips and pressing himself against her. 

His Beast instincts pushed at him, and he caught himself about to stand up to go to her. He was hard again and ready for anything she would allow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could not help but use some wording like “Horrible monstrous beast” from Disney’s BATB. I also could not help using a LOTR scene. I first thought ok about 3-4 pages on the Beasting Out then we can get to a make out scene. I wonder if this is how the actual writers for the show feel because for some reason there is no kissing. *takes deep breath* Enough pain, now they need some comfort kissing!   
> Real LOTR Movie Quote: If you want to read it.
> 
> Arwen: Do you remember when we first met?  
> Aragorn: I thought I had wandered into a dream.  
> Arwen: You did not have the cares you carry now. Do you remember what I told you?  
> Aragorn: You said you'd bind yourself to me, forsaking the immortal life of your people.  
> Arwen: And to that I hold. [hands him her pendant]  
> Arwen: I choose a mortal life.  
> Aragorn: You cannot give me this.  
> Arwen: It is mine to give to whom I will. Like my heart.


	4. Sexy Beast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh thank gawd. I never thought I would get to the point where they kiss. LOL! I know. I know. It is my fic, so I should be able to control it somehow. But you see, I can’t. Ok, on to the kiss.

Catherine slowly straightened up while watching him over her shoulder. She turned toward him allowing her hips to dip as she walked back to him. If Vincent in Beast form was primal, she fully intended to talk to him in that language. Her movements were an offer and a promise. 

“Still hot in here.” Catherine spoke as quiet as possible trying to use mainly breath as she knew his abilities included hearing at great distances. She hoped it would cause him to focus and concentrate on the sound as if tuning in to hear subtle noises. 

“Steamy.” Catherine’s voice floated on the damp air to Vincent’s sensitive ears. 

Vincent tipped his head somewhat, and she knew it worked. 

Now that she knew she had his full attention, she ran a hand around her neck and pulled her hair back letting it thread between her fingers.

She watched Vincent’s eyes flicker when the rustling sound from her hair reached him. He tipped his head up a fraction of an inch smelling the air. 

“It’s like taking a steam bath. Misty wetness.” She barely breathed out while shifting her shoulders and arching her back to give him a better view. 

Next, Catherine slid her hand down her neck letting her arm press and rub against her breast. She knew that his eyes were fixed on her hand then her cleavage where the light friction sound was coming from. 

He grunted in approval wishing it was his tongue tracing her neck and breast. He clenched his hands slowly into fists then released as if he wanted to grab onto her body. His nose faired and he breathed in again when she shifted her stance and flipped the other side of her hair back. 

Catherine held up the camera to take a photo and wanted to capture his predatory desire on film. She had to blink a few times because the intimate interaction caused her eyes to lose focus and dilate. She felt as if she downed an entire bottle of wine. The ache between her legs made her want to strip, climb on Vincent and press her breasts against his face in offering. 

Catherine reminded herself she needed photos of Vincent as the Beast. “That’s it. Pose for me. Give it to me. Give me the sexy Beast.” 

Vincent, still in Beast, form stood and took a step toward her while the camera flashed several times.

“Stop.” Catherine held her hand out flat at him and spoke in her regular tone and volume. “Sit. On the bench. I need to get some photos.”

Vincent made fists flexing his arms and roared at her flashing his teeth and fangs. 

“Vincent?” Catherine lowered her hand knowing he would not hurt her. 

He growled in reply. 

“I need to get some photos, and I can’t do that if you touch me. Please.” She was back to whispering again knowing he would have to be quiet and still to fully hear her. 

She knew the camera was focused on him already so she held the button down. She guessed it took a few dozen by the time she stopped.

“Bench.” Catherine insisted quietly not really wanting him to go to the bench. 

She had always heard friends giggling saying that their man had ravaged them, and she wanted to know how that felt. She wanted his ferocity unleashed on her body as she found release. 

But first, she needed a damn photograph that was usable for the stupid book. 

He picked up the bench breaking the support bands that held it in place and swung it as if he was going to launch it into outer space by way of the glass ceiling. 

Catherine gasped, “Please Vincent.” 

The sudden intake of air and spoken plea penetrated Vincent’s mind. 

At the last second, he gripped the bench and twisted not letting it go. He glanced around then to her. He stood there blinking repetitively and quickly before the gold died down some.

Vincent seemed to gain control and set the bench back in place. He growled low and deep in his chest letting her know he would have felt better if he could have smashed something. 

She never felt threatened even though he was about to destroy part of the building with his anger. “Thank you. I was just…you know doing the photographer thing. I need to take a few more photos ok?” 

His head nodded once then he sat on the bench with his forearms resting on his knees, which was what he knew she wanted. His eyes flashed gold again as his frustration, rage and desire shone on his face like dancing candle light. 

“Good. That’s good.” She moved around and took photos from different angles. “Good boy.”

He squinted at her letting her know he didn’t like being called boy.

She almost giggled because she pictured him pulling up pink and white orchids in a fit of anger.

“Alright, I think we’re done.” Catherine beamed at him with a broad smile. 

Vincent lowered his head and concentrated. After a few moments, he was himself again. “Sorry about the bench. I um…”

Catherine stepped up to him and turned the camera to let him see one of the photos. “Don’t worry about it. It looks great on film, and it’s not like you launched it out the ceiling or anything like that.”

“I was about to.” Vincent grinned mischievously while she pressed a viewer button letting them both see what shots she got. 

“I know.” Catherine raised her eyebrows as she pressed her bicep against him purposefully touching him. 

Vincent was starting to get nervous that she was going to leave now, and he didn’t know how she would feel if he asked her out on a date. He thought he really should have been watching more recent things on television instead of watching movies that he saw on Catherine’s shelves in her apartment. 

He raised an eyebrow thinking that Lord of the Rings served him well earlier. But somehow he didn’t think that announcing that he would come back to her at the turn of the tide or for her to look to his coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn for her to look to the east would go so well for him. 

“Yes, Vincent.” She set the camera down next to the bench and turned back to him. 

“I didn’t ask anything?” Vincent felt dumbstruck standing this close to her. He tried to force down what he thought was a stupid grin.

“You were thinking a question. What were you going to ask?” Catherine wondered what sexual comment he was about to make. 

Vincent looked down at the ferns then back up to her eyes. He hadn’t asked a woman out in years and knew he was doing it wrong. “Do you want to go on a date sometime?”

Catherine scrutinized his face seeing that he was being serious. She thought it was obvious at this point that she wanted him to be her man. It confused her that he was kind of acting like they didn’t even know each other’s names. He looked nervous, and she wanted to calm that down. A date it was then.

“Yes, we can go out on a date. Better yet. There is a Christmas get together at my parents. Want to go?” Catherine stepped closer almost touching him desperately wanting to get back to where they were before. 

Catherine wished he would be the one to make contact next. She wanted to feel his hands slide around her body and his soft lips press against her lips. She was practically bouncing with anticipation. 

“I um…tried to invite myself already. Evan said it wasn’t a good idea.” His smile was gone and Catherine noticed he was back to brooding again. He even leaned away from her. 

Her frustration level shot up. She thought because the photo shoot session was over that they were going to finally kiss and possibly finish stripping. He wasn’t even making eye contact at this point. 

Now she was the one that wanted to break something. She would have picked up the camera to smash it if it did not have the wickedly sensuous photos of Vincent on it. 

Catherine knew she was losing ground with him and fast. She didn’t know how to fix it. She tried to get his attention and nothing seemed to work like it did before. It was as if he closed himself off again hiding himself. 

She felt like smashing her head against a wall until she fell unconscious. She sarcastically glanced at Vincent’s abs thinking they were hard enough that it might work. 

She concluded the downward spiral started with the mention of Evan. She pondered that Evan was also the one behind Vincent not being at the Thanksgiving dinner. 

She pictured Vincent sitting alone somewhere on a holiday. It angered her. 

“I don’t give a fucking flying pyjak what Evan wants.” She was tired of Evan sticking his nose into her love life and her work life. The men she went out with weren’t good enough for her. The job she had was not prestigious enough for her. She shouldn’t cut her hair any shorter because it made her look like a boy. 

Vincent watched anger flash on her face, and he liked it. He always went for the feisty independent type. 

“You want to go. I want you go to. Who gives a shit what anyone else thinks? I don’t. Anyone needs to stay out of my business.” 

Catherine took a deep breath and braced her hands on her hips. She glanced around as if looking for Evan so she could tell him off. 

It was obvious to Vincent that the anyone she was talking about was Evan. Vincent found her anger on his behalf flattering and damn attractive. 

“I’ll go if you tell me one thing.” Vincent fought to keep the smile off of his face. 

“What’s that?” Catherine’s anger fueled her desire to touch Vincent again. Her eyes roved over his half naked frame for the third time in the last ten seconds. 

“What’s a pie jack? Is it some type of pie or is it something you do?” He squinted his eyes as if he was trying to understand the term, which he wasn’t. He just wanted to know if she really knew what it was. 

“Neither. Pyjaks are a monkey rodent thing on Mass Effect. Well, they didn’t name it till two.” Catherine shifted her stance drawing his attention as she had before. 

His eyes glanced down then back up. A flicker of fire danced in his eyes as he leaned over her.

“You’re a gamer.” Vincent spoke it as a statement. He wondered what her gamer tag was and if they had ever unknowing played on line together.

“Yes.” Her mind offered that she could have told him it was a sexual position and then she could have asked him if he wanted a demonstration. She thought that would sound too corny and she shook her head no. 

“Yes you are or no you’re not?” Vincent saw she was looking distracted again. He leaned even closer as his eyebrows hitched up a fraction because of his interest. 

“Yes.” 

“Yes?” Vincent smirked as if he didn’t believe her.

“Yes.” At this point, she had no idea what question he asked because her inner monologue was driving her crazy. She absently wondered if she was saying yes she wanted to touch him. She blinked twice clearing out her thoughts trying to remember it had something to do with games. 

He was glairing devilishly at her, but he was not making any moves. 

She was running out of reasons again to not touch him. She reminded herself that they had not even gone out on one date yet. She countered with thinking that touching was not necessarily a bad thing. Her mind responded with the knowledge that once she started touching him that she doubted she would have the power to stop. 

“Why should I stop?” Catherine blurted out as she was getting angry with herself. 

“Stop being a gamer?” Vincent knew exactly what she had been thinking. 

It thrilled him that the confident, detailed oriented and highly intelligent woman in front of him was just as frustrated with the situation as he was. He could not bring himself to instigate things, so he just tried to be patient and wait for her. 

“People think that attorneys shouldn’t play video games.” She didn’t exactly answer him and she didn’t exactly lie. 

He found her fascinating and wondered if he could sit in on some of her court cases. 

Catherine told herself that she couldn’t that she should at least wait till the end of their first date. 

Her hands went back to fidgeting and her mind started going back over the reasons why she should keep her hands to herself. She shook her head thinking if she had to stand this close to him any longer then she would have to stop by the ladies room and keep her hands on herself for a while so that she could be sane enough to drive home. 

Catherine thought she would have to do just that because there was no way she was telling a police officer that no she was not drunk just turned on a lot. 

She finally told herself why the hell not. Nothing sounded convincing anyway. She determined she would have to be the one to set things in motion again. 

Once she knew she was not going to hold back, she decided not to slowly work things up because she was already there and guessed he was too. 

Catherine tried to speak slowly and pressed her hands to his muscular abdomen. “From the moment I saw you, I knew I wanted you. You’re quite the sexy beast, Vincent.” 

She decided Sexy Beast was going to be her nickname for him. 

His eyelids flickered with barely contained need as his muscles jumped and flexed. He had no idea why a woman would find his Beast side attractive, but for some reason she seemed to like it. It was the most unattractive trait he believed he had. It was the thing that made him self-conscious. And he could tell she liked it…a lot. 

No one had ever fully accepted everything about him except for JT. And even then, Vincent kept things from his friend. He wasn’t holding anything back from her. He knew he was free to be himself with her. There was a freedom in that which he had not felt since before his brothers passed away in the towers. 

The front of her pink top grazed his body as her hands slid up his chest. The contact sent tingling sensation all over him. His hands trembled from trying to restrain himself from touching her. 

Catherine knew he wanted her, but he was not joining in. “How long has it been?”

Vincent felt as if he could not get enough air. His eyes shifted from her eyes to her sliding hands. 

He tried to speak but his voice cut out then he tried again. “While I was deployed. She uhhh we watched out for each other and if one of us needed aaaaah attention we went to each other. She was experimented on too. It wasn’t exactly romantic like love if you know what I mean.”

Catherine nodded her head yes and her hands stopped moving. She expected him to say a year maybe two, but ten. 

Her eyes darted around wondering if this was an appropriate setting especially since it had been so long for him. 

Vincent’s first instinct was that she was looking for the way out. He told that part of his mind to shut up. “What are you thinking?” 

“That maybe we should wait.” Catherine pondered asking him to come back with her to her apartment. After Heather married Evan, she moved out, so they would have the place to themselves. 

Vincent put his hands over hers where they were pressed to his pecks. “Wait longer than ten years?” He overly pronounced each word letting the sound of each word bounce sarcastically.

Catherine caught the humor in his voice and saw the smirk. She busted out laughing and leaned on him. 

Vincent’s bark of laughter bounced off of the Conservatory’s ceiling sending birds into the air. 

“No. No waiting.” Catherine tried to stop laughing.

“Oh thank gawd.” Vincent’s eyes danced with mirth as his hands ran over her arms to her shoulders. 

Her arms slid around him as she stepped fully against him. Her face was pressed against his chest again, and it felt right to both of them. 

Last time on the bench, when they embraced it had been to comfort pain. Now, it was a mutual happiness and light hearted joke that they shared. The contact was as sweet as sugar cookies warm fresh from the oven. 

“Thank you.” Catherine closed her eyes and for the first time alone with a man she was attracted to…she felt safe.

Vincent’s voice was filled with the mirth from his eyes. “I haven’t done anything yyyyyet.”

Catherine reached up and pinched the back of his arm with her nails knowing what he was hinting at to her. 

“Hey.” Vincent pretended to be hurt and pulled his arm up. 

“I mean for what you did for us. You risked your life to save us. Thank you.” Catherine listened to the beat of his heart and slid her hands on his back. 

They started swaying as if music were playing. And it was, but it was not the kind of music you hear with your ears. It was the kind of melody you sense with your heart. Their heart songs were now perfectly in tune with each others. One completed the other’s song as they twined together underneath the foliage. 

This was Vincent’s moment. He had waited nine long years to feel her arms wrapped around him in joy of the contact. He held her tightly as they watched the tropical birds settle back down across from the fountain. 

The sun was starting to set in the horizon and a pinkish peach glow illuminated the plants and the fountains in the Conservatory. 

They continued to sway to the unheard music till she pressed away enough to peer up into his knowing eyes. Her lips tipped gently up on the sides in peace and her eyes watched him expectantly as if to say she was ready for more. 

The resolve in her eyes and their banter melted away his self doubt and bashfulness around her. 

He lowered his lips toward her even as she angled her chin up bringing their lips together. The soft press and the light caress of breath was a dizzying spell that bound them together. For all Catherine and Vincent knew, they really were in a steamy tropical jungle where none but them existed. Their hands explored, their bodies pressed together and they deepened the kiss even as they felt themselves deepening their connection. 

After a time, they pulled a few inches apart so they could gaze into each other’s eyes to reaffirm what they felt inside. 

Catherine was content to just look upon him for a time and map the brown and green of his eyes. He was the man that was her safety and her fantasies come to life before her. 

Vincent was mesmerized by a vision in pink before him as the light from the setting sun seemed to encase her like a fairytale princess of a distant kingdom. He wanted to say something to her to let her know how he felt, but nothing seemed to fit the feelings that swirled around in his thoughts. 

He finally settled on just speaking without trying to plan it and knew that she might understand. 

“You’re the Beauty to my Beast. I never thought I would or could feel…normal again. You make me feel like things might be alright. You make me feel human and not some experiment gone wrong that needs to be put down.” 

He cupped her face with his hands. “You’re everything to me, Catherine. Everything I could have possibly hoped for and feared would never be mine. It truly is as if I have walked into a dream.” 

Catherine felt her eyes sting with tears, but they did not overflow. She felt her heart wrench, but it did not break. She felt her world torn apart, but it brought no pain. She knew she was not the same person who walked into the Conservatory to take photos of a hot guy. She felt herself as being more than her. 

It was as if her world was a puzzle. Vincent had removed some of her pieces, chiseled some of his own and made them fit into hers. She wasn’t one of the crowd any longer. She wasn’t an outsider looking in and she wasn’t alone anymore. 

The barriers she held around her heart were no longer in existence, and she felt the impact of his words inside herself where she never let anyone go. It was too fragile a place that could be so easily destroyed by a cruel man or even a careless one. She knew Vincent was neither of those things. 

She spent her days and nights working in a cynical profession. She witnessed utter betrayals and trusting people’s worlds ripped apart to utter destruction and desolation that could never be righted. 

Now here with Vincent, she gave her trust to him freely knowing he was not perfect, but she truly believed he was perfect for her. 

Peering closely into his eyes she had nothing to say. She had nothing to give that could compare with the gifts he had just given to her. All she had was herself, so she offered herself to him.

Catherine pulled him down to her more firmly pressing their lips together. He tried to pull back to speak, but she wouldn’t let him. She clung to him as if drowning and there was no way to get close enough to him. 

His primal side responded to her demand. He fed from her lips, and he clutched her to him grinding their bodies together. He changed back and forth between Beast and himself in fluid movements consuming her with his own demands for more. 

Over time, Vincent found his Beast side calmed and once again allowed him to keep contact with her lovely eyes. There was a connection and an understanding in their depths that he had never been a part of before. 

Eventually, Catherine also felt the frantic intensity ease knowing she would have him now. It was as if warm honey were poured over her body as her muscles relaxed in the safety of the knowledge that she was his and he was hers. 

Nothing and no one would ever come between them from this moment forward. Even if death took one of them, that one would go on living in the other’s soul never to be lost. No, they would never be separated not by death, time or distance. 

They were one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *deep breath* When I found out how the original series ended, I had to be sure that this Beauty and this Beast would never be apart from one another. This Beauty and this Beast will be like the Disney version…and they lived happily ever after. Yes, that’s better. *takes another deep breath* Wait, did I type she knew she was going to have him now? As in now now? I guess that means next chapter is going to get a little explicit. And by a little, I mean a lot.


	5. Together

Catherine caught a flicker of gold flame in Vincent’s eyes just before he leaned down gripping his arms around her waist and lifted her off of her feet. Their lips met again in a slow sensuous motion as their senses absorbed them in the heated contact.

Vincent stepped forward several times toward his destination as his mind registered how fragile the woman in his arms was. He had come to think of her as a powerful attorney who saved lives in court rooms or helped the police dispatch justice when it was needed. 

So now holding her light weight in his arms and feeling her delicate fingers run in his hair caused him to feel a reverence toward her. With his Beast strength, he knew that if he was not careful that he could accidentally harm her. He tried to let it sink into his subconscious area where his Beast self dwelt hoping that the thoughts would sink in and stay if he changed into his Beast self. 

“Ok, I might Beast out, so stop me if I do anything that hurts you.” Vincent became serious as he watched her face not knowing how safe this would be. He avoided intimate situations after he turned into his Beast form. 

Catherine watched as Vincent’s eyebrows drew together as if contemplating a problem. She didn’t want Vincent looking serious. She wanted him looking predatory or even happy, but she didn’t want him holding back because he was concerned that she couldn’t take whatever he had to give. “Right back at ya baby.” 

Vincent tipped his head slightly knowing that baby was not a word she used often and wondered if he was thinking too much about it. He mentally kicked himself telling himself that it was a sexual tease meaning that she might be a little wild herself, but his concern would not let him enjoy the interaction. 

Catherine leaned closer and ran her tongue along his bottom lip. “Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Angie and Brad. It’s a quote.”

His eyebrows instantly relaxed as his protective instincts subsided. 

He did not know the quote because he had never watched the movie. It was not one of the ones she kept on her living room shelf. “Never seen it but I…Wanted to.” 

Catherine smirked at the use of another movie title that she knew was one of her favorites. She enjoyed that movie because in another life she fancied that she must have been a police officer or a spy. 

Vincent set her down on the large room planter that was covered with moss and ferns. He decided to return her last action, but selected a different part of her body than she had. He inched her pink top up and languidly ran his tongue over her abdomen as she undid her pants and zipper. 

Catherine then ran her fingers in his dark hair and tugged so that his eyes came up to her while his tongue started to lower a couple of inches to her panty line. The dark intensity of his eyes and the sensations from his mouth almost made her knees give out. By sheer force of will, she stood her ground against the onslaught. 

She could not help but make another movie reference as she shifted her hips as if slow dancing for him, “Ready for something else you’ve never had but Wanted?”

Vincent felt the tight grip on his hair that was just on the pleasurable side of pain and his eyes flickered back and forth between hazel and gold. He scrutinized her face seeing that the happy smirk was gone, and her eyes flashed with something wicked and mysterious. 

Her hands left his hair and lifted the pink material over her head tossing it behind him. She wanted to see the effects her almost naked body would have on him. She wondered if she could bring the Sexy Beast back out. 

His voice sounded deep and gravely like the shift of tectonic plates under the earth’s surface and with equal heat to that of magma. “Yeesss.”

Catherine’s eyelids fanned from the ground out word and the heated rush of air from his word. She wavered and he held her hips keeping her in place. 

She had been interested to see his reaction to her, but her own body melting at his attentions almost undid her. Her lips parted and she was openly panting at this point. Her body seemed to tremble with each breath. 

 

His fingers tucked into the sides of her pants and green panties pulling them down. They quickly dispersed her clothing and boots. 

Catherine stepped back and lay down with her hair fanned out over the soft moss. 

Vincent watched her settle down as he undid his pants and slid them and his black boxer briefs down to his thighs. He waited a moment before removing them completely because he was momentarily stunned by her movements. 

Catherine eyed where his clothing had been and moaned rubbing her slender yet shapely legs together. Her hands ran from her own thighs to her hips up over her breasts that were still covered with green material. She lightly pinched her aching nipples underneath the fabric while licking her lips. 

She whispered with her eyes half closed and one finger hooked on her bra strap. “You’re joining me?”

His eyes turned completely gold and his fangs extended. 

She worked her body to move suggestively as she crawled to him on her hands and knees. Her hands ran up his legs and rested on his hips. And right now, she wanted to be his fantasy come to life and slowly take him over. He was hers now and to her that meant she could do anything she wanted to and with him. 

Catherine kneeled in front of him and because of the height of the planter she was on it brought her face level with his. 

Her left hand slowly lifted up toward his face, but their eyes never strayed anywhere else but on each others. Catherine pressed her hand over the scar on his cheek that she knew from reading Evan’s papers was the result of Vincent saving her mother during the war. 

Vincent saw his world revolving in Catherine’s eyes as he caught glimpses of sorrow, hope, desire, thankfulness and love. 

His baser instincts pushed at him while in Beast form to claim her for his own. But he was transfixed in the world they created together and for a time they were content to exist there. It was a place of mutual acceptance and safely. 

They stopped thinking and simply dwelt in that moment together.

Catherine slowly brushed her thumb over the scar down to his lips. Vincent parted his lips more allowing her fingertips to trace his fangs as his hands rested on her waist. She was exploring his body and setting every detail to memory where she could evoke his image at will whenever they were apart. 

His moist tongue languidly stroked the bottom of one finger that lingered on a fang. She lowered her mouth to the opposite fang and stroked the dangerous smoothness with the tip of her pink tongue. The closeness allowed her to hear the subtle growl coming out between his lips and permitted her to drown in the golden pools of his eyes. 

Catherine had never allowed herself to fully let go of her self protections and truly be with a man. Sure, she had slept with others even though there had not been that many, but she had always held back her emotions. It had never been an act of love and intimacy like it was now and it felt like so much more that just kissing and exploring each other. 

Catherine felt as if no one else who ever existed could have possibly felt this connected to another. It was as if in all the expanses of time that was or will be, that no two people had ever been so completely one. 

In the past, whenever she heard friends talk about being connected to someone else she always viewed it as a weighted chain. It was always something to be feared and loathed as if it meant the person was now trapped into a situation where the other person could hurt them at will because they would stay out of love or the connection. 

Now, she understood how foolish those thoughts were. It wasn’t a chain holding her to Vincent…it was their souls intertwined. 

It made her want him even more and not just his physical body. She wanted every part of him…every dark secret, every sorrow and every joy. 

Catherine knew if she stopped touching him that she would die from the lack of contact. He was everything she needed to live and the only thing she couldn’t live without. 

Vincent wanted to feast upon her body with light nips of his teeth and flicks of his tongue, but he allowed her to continue to explore him as if he were the lost city of Atlantis. Every inch covered was an adventure as she traced the distended veins on his neck with one hand feeling awe at the man before her. 

Vincent pulled at her waist bringing her body flush with his. He was instantly aware of her hardened nipples under soft fabric pressing to his chest and her hands that moved to grip the sides of his face. 

His heart thundered signaling a coming storm, and he knew that he was not going to be alone in the tempest. He could hear her heart racing alongside his toward the same goal, so he retracted his fangs. 

Their lips met in a frantic frenzy as their hands pulled and gripped onto each other. They were drowning in need of each other sinking into the depths of oblivion as Vincent joined her on the soft moss. 

He covered her almost naked body with his as he relished each press, each exhilarating rub of friction and each feminine moan from her lips as their bodies slid and ground against each other. 

Catherine’s frustration was evident as she clawed at his muscular back and ass while she worked her hips seeking their union. She never remembered wanting a man so much.

Vincent understood her need and knew her demand, but wanted to survey the wonders of her body as she had with him. He inched down her body running his tongue along the gentle slope of her neck pausing to nip and lave over her pulse. 

Vincent raised his head slightly allowing their eyes to lock. His fangs snapped down again.

“Yes. Yes.” Catherine purred as her hands rose over her head while she stretched her body that seemed to move with fluidity to an unheard seductive song. 

Vincent’s mouth lowered between her breasts then his fangs gripped at the green material that was in his way. With a snap, the thin garment gave way exposing the soft mounds of her breasts that heaved with each breath she drew. 

Catherine had no fear that he would bite and draw blood even thought part of her wished he would. As a teenager, she had fantasized about vampires and werewolves, but Vincent in Beast form was so much more than her dreamed encounters. He was deadly, intoxicating and apparently skilled at what he was doing. 

His mouth and fingers mirrored each other as he teased the hardened peaks that rose up willingly toward him. Every flick, suck and pinch seamed to send tingling and pulsing sensations to lower areas on her body causing her to gasp in pleasurable torment. 

Catherine ground against him as best she could and felt on the side of her leg that his hardened length was more than ready to participate. She envisioned him sliding inside her warm slickness and groaned as her body clenched in need of further attention. 

“I need you.” The now constant throb of the bud between her legs was a maddening promise of what was to come. She needed him and could not wait any longer or she would lose her mind. 

Vincent sensed that her words and body were in tune, but he took a little more time. He had waited for this moment for years and did not want it to end any time soon. The grip of her fingers and the plea from her lips was something he dreamed of but never thought would be a reality. 

Now in this moment together with her, his dreams and fantasies were made manifest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They are so right and good for each other. The song I listened to while writing this is In a State “…My mind is in a state but all I need to do is change my pace. And I know there's fear to face, but happiness is firm in its embrace. This time.” You probably recognize the song from the ep it was in where Vincent was shirtless laying in bed. I rewrote this chapter twice. I kept changing my mind about how I wanted this to go. I watched 1x10 and 1x11 before finishing this and feel better about it now.


	6. Mine

A light cool mist lowered onto Vincent and Catherine’s bodies from a fountain nearby that was set to automatically turn on after sunset. The light spray that moved like a fog surrounded them on the bed of soft green moss. 

Catherine laid back and closed her eyes feeling the mist tingle her body even as the heat from Vincent’s mouth sucked and tugged on her nipple. Her mind imagined it was pixie dust that was being sprinkled on her flushed skin. 

Her breathy voice floated with the mist. “Vincent.”

“I know.” He was more than aware that her body was giving off several signs that she was fully aroused and ready for him. He flicked his tongue one last time on the hardened bud in his mouth and pulled back with a light tug. 

The sucking pull then quick release of his mouth brought a gasp from her as a tingling sensation broke out on her body. It started with her breasts and caused a shiver to move over her biceps then over her torso to settle lower in her thighs. 

Catherine opened her eyes and gripped Vincent’s hair tighter when she noticed he was not moving up over her. “Please.”

“I am.” His deep voice rumbled as he lowered his mouth to her abdomen for a kiss as he slid his body lower. He paused letting his eyes rise up to hers and let her see his sinful intent. 

Catherine sucked in air and was holding it as she realized that he was going to use his mouth lower on her body. The pink of her cheeks brightened to almost red. The intensity of his dark hazel heated eyes had held her in place more than any predator had ever been able to do with its prey. 

His tongue flicked out when a dance of Beast fire filed his eyes. 

The softness of his breath, the lash of his tongue and the intensity of the flame caused Catherine to let out a shaky uneven breath she had been holding in her lungs. She instantly gasped for more air as he continued to kiss lower causing her heart to race with expectation as his mouth passed her navel. 

When he broke eye contact, she finally glanced up to see dozens of flowering vines that hung down like a curtain or tapestry. Her eyelids fluttered with every uneven breath she drew in as her eyes focused in and out on the pink and violet flowers that were sprinkled in the vines. 

Catherine had never allowed any of her men to do what Vincent was about to because it always felt to intimate. She let go of the grip she had on his hair letting the silken strands slide between her fingers. 

Vincent’s hand stroked up her leg as he moved her knee more to the side exposing her to him. He had often thought of what he would do if ever he found himself unadorned with the perfection that was Catherine, but all traces of thought left him. Now, he only wanted to pleasure her and to listen to her cries of release as his tongue flicked across her delicate skin. 

His hand continued to trail down her abdomen as his lips and tongue traced the contour of her hip when he felt her tense.

Being like this or even thinking about it always made her feel unsafe and that things were out of her control. Catherine felt a sudden panic since the moment was close when he would explore her with his mouth. The feeling of being exposed made her feel self conscious and venerable to him. 

“Wait.” Her voice was nothing short of a whimper, which was not a tone he had ever heard from her before.

The almost whispered word stopped him faster than an army of soldiers pointing automatic rifles at him. 

He tipped his head to the side resting his cheek on her thigh, so he could watch her face more fully. His eyebrows nit together then rose as if asking what.

She was a second away from telling him to stop as she had with the others. She would typically take over the direction and go straight to it in order to distract. Catherine didn’t want to do that with Vincent, but she also didn’t want to turn this into some kind of talk. She wanted him and she knew he wanted her. Neither wanted to wait. 

Catherine clenched her teeth as she felt like she was ruining the moment and potentially causing unneeded mayhem to his first sexual encounter in almost ten years. 

 

She berated herself for being a freak when it came to trusting men, but she could not help it. The impulses were very strong ones that were created from a since of self preservation that once helped save her life. But she knew the things in you that change to save you if held on to for too long are the very things that destroy you. Or so her therapist of five years had told her. She didn’t want to listen, but now she knew it was the truth.

She told herself to fall back on her original plan which she used with others because if she paused any longer it would be dragged out and seem like some important built up thing that it was not. 

Catherine paused when light from the fountain caught the pink scar on his cheek that extended up to his brow and down to his lips. 

Her hand moved out instinctively touching the scar and tracing the line with her finger down to his mouth. Her fingertip glided over one of his fangs before going back to his lips and to the scar. 

She realized she was not the only one feeling exposed. She saw in his eyes for a moment that there was a question as if he were asking her to take him for what he was and not to discard him. 

Vincent almost shook with dread when she stopped his progress, and he could see she was making some type of a decision. 

All of the old doubts returned plaguing his mind with ideas that he was unworthy and that she was just now realizing it. He told himself to stop doubting her that she would not turn him away. 

He closed his eyes for a moment then pushed it back and allowed himself to truly hope and to trust her. He knew he was in this with her. He told himself that she was in this with him and that they had a future together. 

When Catherine saw the edges of his lips tip in a smile filled with trust the tension in her body relaxed some. 

Her eyes lowered to his chest, but she was not able to see the scars from the bullets that he took to save her mother’s life. She reminded herself that the man she was laying unclothed with had real life war wounds from saving her mother more than once and from saving her. 

She focused on what she could see, which was the jagged scar caused from a fight to the death where he protected her mother while in a war zone. He was a defender. She thought about how many people in her life would willingly make the decision to step in front of a bullet knowing it could hit their heart thereby ending their life and do it to save her and her mother. 

It was a very short list. 

The idea of taking a bullet for someone and hearing people say they would…for most was just something to say. In her profession as an attorney, she had tried many cases where people stood by as loved ones were murdered or slaughtered. 

Here. Now. She was with a man who could say it and mean it. He not only would mean it, but he had done it. He had intentionally allowed bullets to rip open his flesh and tear at his internal organs spilling his blood and almost his life to save her and one she loved. 

Catherine took a deep breath and wondered if this was how ladies of old who lived in castles felt when knights defended their honor. It also made her think of any song ever written where a man said he would die for his love. 

And, Vincent had come for her to rescue. He placed her safety and her life over his own. He found her to hold that much value that when the decision had to be made he wanted her safe and for her to live her life. Now, she wanted to live it and she wanted him to live that life with her.

The reality of it was so much more touching and meaningful than any romantic gesture she had received before. He had given so much for her and to her and asked for so little in return. He was not trying to manipulate her or own her. He simply wished her well and strove to make that a reality. And, she wanted him to be alright and wanted to work toward making sure that was his reality. 

Letting him kiss her all over her body seemed like a small thing to ask for especially since it would potentially bring her so much pleasure. She wondered if she could force herself to let him and act like it was not big deal. 

Catherine remembered how he changed forms so she could photograph him and how he opened up to her when she knew he did not truly want to do it. She felt that if he could expose himself then she could as well. She told herself to shut the hell up and to just enjoy what he had to offer.

She knew it was not just her body she was making the decision about. Up until this moment their interactions could have been just being caught up in a romantic interaction. But now, she knew it was not just some fantasy. 

Catherine truly wanted to open her life up to him and live every day in the complexity that would be their lives together. She would be a famous attorney from a powerful family and her man would be a heavily sought after media magnet and medical curiosity. 

The decision was made. 

She tried to return the smile of trust that was beaming at her. The bond between them strengthened and they both felt it.

Catherine felt almost stupid now for stopping him and wondered what he would think if she simply said the word continue. Since she thought things over only a few moments passed, but she wondered what he was thinking. Because she couldn’t think of anything else to say, and she didn’t want to admit what she was thinking just yet…she whispered, “No biting. There anyway.” 

Vincent saw more was going on behind her eyes, and he knew he would ask later. He glanced over the front of her body then nodded once at her. He felt her body relax again, and her now half closed eyes watched him with fascination. 

Catherine continued to watch as he traced his lips over the dip on her hip then the length of her thigh. The searing heat returned to her body and even the light mist could not cool her skin. Now that she decided to be his, she didn’t want to hold anything back. 

She could trust him. The thought struck her and her eyes stung for a moment as the emotion of the realization mingled with the tremors of arousal caused by his ever moving lips. 

She felt his lips move on her skin as he spoke. “You ok?”

A song was playing in her mind and instead of telling him about the battle she had just undergone internally she spoke the words to him. If he had watched her as close as she thought, he would recognize it instantly. “There's an old voice in my head that's holding me back.”

Vincent smiled and drew a circle with his finger around her navel. “Well, tell her that I miss our little talks. Soon it will be over and buried with our past.”

“I like Little Talks.” Catherine folded her arm under her head so that she could watch him. Strangely she felt relaxed and felt none of the unease from earlier. She even seemed to revel in her ability to not be put off by his position over her body as they indirectly spoke using a mutual reference. 

“Me too. It can mean so many different things.” Vincent’s deep baritone voice rolled over her skin. 

He knew now what she had been thinking about. After her mother had almost died and she had heard the police speculating about what the men were going to do to her, he knew that Catherine had never really let anyone in emotionally. From a distance, he had seen her push the guys she had been with to make sure their sexual activities were hurried and then she would kick them out of her apartment. 

She couldn’t even sleep with them in her apartment, and she never stayed the night at their house without taking a gun with her. She wouldn’t sleep, but wait for the guy to sleep then stalk around their place and never let her gun be that far away from her. His mind flashed memories of her friend Tess who was a police officer as she taught the shorter woman how to use a variety of weapons. 

He knew the song she was referencing and that it was that violent moment in her past that was holding her back. He knew he spoke part of the song that mentioned his own little talks with her that she never heard and that those negative things in Catherine’s past would fade over time if she was with him and saw that she could trust him. 

Catherine ran her fingers over his wrist and down his fingers that were pressed to her flat stomach. “I’m…complicated.”

Vincent moved his hand to cover hers. “I don’t mind complicated. It’s not like my life is a simple one. We can be complicated together.”

Catherine wasn’t sure how to convey to him how much that meant to her and how confused relationships made her. She turned back to using the lyrics. “Some days I feel like I'm wrong when I'm right.”

Vincent knew that the reality of the darkness of her past was still haunting her and that it was hard for her to talk about, so he let her lead and he replied in kind. “'Cause though the truth may vary this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore.”

He gripped her hand tighter and she understood that the ship was them united together and if they worked together they would be brought to a safe haven…together. 

She nodded yes and closed her eyes settling back. She focused on the feel of where his body was touching hers. 

When his mouth finally lowered on her, she didn’t expect the flood of sensations caused by his slow movements. She had no idea that each slight change in pressure and movement at that slow of a pace could cause her body to shiver as if she were out in the cold and not the heated Conservatory. 

Catherine’s eyes flashed open and she watched him slowly drawing circles as if he had an abundance of time, but obsessively wanted explore her and taste her. It felt almost perverse in a naughty way that she was watching what he was doing to her body and she drank in it. 

She had wondered if his stubble would scratch her, but apparently he knew how to avoid that. She had thought that his movements would be brisk and overly forceful, but he would move faster for a few moments then retreat going slower again. It was a maddening build that was only heightened when he lightly sucked then penetrated with his tongue before using a finger that pressed downward toward the moss. 

Catherine moaned and rocked her hips wishing he would move faster, but he only removed his finger and replaced it with two that pressed upward toward her navel. She tried to keep up with what he was doing, but her mind faded as his mouth and hands worked slowly over her. 

It became a movement like the swirl, ebb and flow of the ocean as sensations and pleasurable torment rocked her body. She wanted it faster and harder, but nothing anyone had done to her before compared to his building wave that she knew would come crashing over eventually. 

He changed tactics from fast flickering to long sliding motions. Her body danced under him as an array of sweet sounds escaped her parted lips. She now gripped her hair as there was nothing else to hold on to in order to keep her anchored to reality instead of drowning in the ocean. 

“Faster.” Catherine knew she was at the point where it didn’t matter what he did as long as he kept moving that she would find release. Her body screamed at her to make him give her more. 

Golden eyes flickered back up at her and Catherine knew he was fully Beasted out. She didn’t care even when she saw that it was the smooth sides of his fangs that were holding her folds spread for his darting tongue. 

“Mine.” One solitary word that was more of a growl escaped Vincent’s mouth stunning him that he was able to make any sound that even remotely sounded like a word. 

“Yessss. I’mmm yours.” Catherine’s voice broke as her body moved of its own accord trying to get what she wanted. She had never experienced the mingling of the emotions of her heart with the sensation of pleasure from her body. It mixed together somehow. Mind. Body. Heart. 

Vincent gripped her tighter feeling her strain against him as he forced himself to continue his slow pace with his vexing tongue. He wanted to give her what she asked for, but knew the end result would be stronger and last longer if he held back. 

He listened to her heart racing, he glanced up at her flushed skin and he felt the pulsing against his tongue when the wave of her release finally crashed upon shore. 

Her hands clenched in her hair tighter as she continued to thrash from the continual waves of pulsing pleasure that constricted and released all over her body. She felt extra wetness between her legs and could not even be concerned because her mind failed to function. She was thoroughly caught up in the tide of Vincent’s creation and the safely of freedom in his harbor. 

Vincent inched up her body watching her as she settled. He knew the satisfied expression that came over her face was only a calm before another storm. She gasped and clung to him when he flicked is tongue over a still pert nipple. She had never been that sensitive to touch before and loved it. 

“Take me.” Catherine ran her hands up the moist skin of Vincent’s back. “Don’t hold back.”

Their lips met as a deep rumbling growl within Vincent’s chest let her know he was finally going to comply with her request. She didn’t care when she thought about where his mouth had just been as she tasted a sweetness she did not expect. His tongue moved as it had earlier and her body remembered the movements. She dug her nails into him demanding more before biting his lip. 

Vincent’s eyes glowed gold in the darkness that was now only lit by a blue lantern by the fountain behind them. They didn’t even notice the moving lights in the fountain that caused flickers of light to bounce around the room and off the foliage. 

Her body flooded with instant need as if she had not already found release only moments before. A hurried and almost electric shock ran over her system as he perched ready to slide inside her heat. His lips ran over her pulse on her neck as his fangs grazed lightly. 

Catherine gasped loudly when his tongue flicked back and forth over her pulse while his fangs and teeth pressed down hard. He was sucking the skin and muscle of her neck in time with the movements of his tongue. Vincent flexed his body sliding into her center that clenched in heated welcome. 

The storm broke causing a primal clash of gripping hands and thrusting bodies. 

Their need for each other overtook them as they fought to devour one another as nothing was enough and each of them strove for more. They wound around one another as they united not just their bodies but their lives as they stopped being individuals and became one being. 

One heard with one mind and desire…to fully give themselves to each other. And they took and instinctively knew what the other needed in return. 

“Harder.” Catherine gripped his hair pulling back and bit down on his neck in the same manner as he had before to her. She wanted to be pushed farther than what she needed. She wanted to be consumed by the tempest. 

Vincent heard the hammering of her heart and knew that he didn’t have to hold on much longer, so he could give her what she wanted this time. 

Catherine felt his muscular arms wrap around her body like metal vices as he redoubled his efforts. She did not know or care if the growling and screaming she heard was her own or Vincent’s voice when he plunged one more time causing delicious friction and pressure as she found release again. 

She felt a sensation of falling before her body struck warm water, and they sank together into the depths. At first she thought it was in her mind, but then she was aware of the weightless feeling of truly being submerged in water. She controlled herself not to breath in the water and the lack of oxygen only heightened the experience of the waves of pleasure.

Seconds after submersion, Vincent found his own throbbing release and transformed from is Beast form back into his fully human form. 

Catherine did not fight for the surface, but held onto Vincent knowing he would propel them up. She was not disappointed when a few moments later they broke the surface. 

Catherine finally breathed in and wiped her eyes looking over at the moss that they had just been on moments ago. She continued to hold onto Vincent and shook from the burst of laughter and happiness that filled her very soul. 

His deep rumbling laughter joined hers as he held onto the edge of the large fountain. “I’ve heard of falling for someone, but that’s ridiculous.” 

Catherine listened to his voice and continued to laugh as she embraced the cheese factor. “What can I say? You get me really wet.” 

Catherine smiled as she felt her back pressed to the fountain wall. 

Vincent grinned back with raised eyebrows. “Yes, I noticed.”

Catherine splashed water up over his head. “Watch it.”

“I’m trying too but the damn water is getting in the way.”

In Catherine’s mind, the song started playing again, but she did not say the words out loud: ‘Don't listen to a word I say. Hey! The screams all sound the same’. She thought in an instant that their voices mingled…her screams of release and his growling shout of enjoyment. The song was no longer a sad thing to her. It was now a happiness that she did not mind as it kept playing in her mind. 

“Guess we made it to shore…” Catherine laughed again as her arms slid around his neck bringing their lips closer together. “I had no idea the water was this deep. I don’t even know if I knew it was here. I guess I just didn’t expect this.” 

They blinked at each other and they knew the ambiguity of the words implied the depth of their feelings for each other and finding each other and not just the extensive fountain. 

Vincent tightened his hold on her letting his lips graze against hers before he replied. “What was that Tom Hanks movie where he was trapped on that island?”

Catherine knew it was something she had watched a couple of months ago and was still sitting by the DVD player in her apartment. She wondered if Vincent saw it while looking in on her or watched her watching it. She knew she played one part of that movie over and over. “Cast Away.”

“Who knows what the tide could bring?” Vincent whispered wondering if she was catching on to his meaning.

Catherine now knew that he had watched her watching that movie because that was the exact part that she had watched over and over. She remembered watching it wondering what the tide might bring her and if there was anything for her or if she would remain alone and misunderstood by everyone around her. 

“Are you my Wilson?” Catherine smirked at him trying not to feel the seriousness of the moment and the meaning. 

“No. You’re my Wilson. You’re the one I spoke to all those years knowing you were not going to speak back. I was so isolated and alone hiding from Muirfield. Even with JT around, it wasn’t enough. There were things I couldn’t tell him, so I told you as I watched you from the next building over. Is that creepy?”

Catherine burst out laughing even more than before until she noticed he was not joining in on the laugh. “No it’s not creepy Vincent. I like that you watched over me keeping me safe.”

“Talking to you even if you couldn’t hear me kept me sane.”

“So I am your Wilson.” Catherine almost lost her hold on him and slipped splashing water on her face. 

“I’ve got you.” Vincent lifted her up. “Don't worry Wilson, I'll do all the paddling. You just hang on.”

Catherine giggled as he moved them to an area that would be easier to climb out of. “Whatever you say Chuck.” 

“Whatever I say?” Vincent sounded playfully hopeful like she would do anything he thought up.

“Don’t push it. Being a Sexy Beast only gets you so far.” Catherine watched Vincent instantly transform into his Beast self and propel them out of the water. 

They landed several feet away with him smelling the air like someone was around them. He clutched her and held her to the side like he was shielding her. 

Catherine remembered the night watchman said he would come by to lock things up. “It’s probably the night watchman.”

Vincent’s glowing eyes darted to her then back toward a hallway and he shook his head no once.


	7. Mayhem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I give you…the misunderstanding mayhem.

Catherine allowed Vincent to move her back against the wall as he scanned the Conservatory with is enhanced eyes and hearing abilities. 

Catherine whispered, “Who is it?”

Vincent transformed back into his full human self. He took a deep breath as if he were aggravated. “I’ll take care of it. Get dressed and I’ll meet you at your vehicle. Take the side exit.”

“Is is a Muirfield agent?” Catherine tried to piece things together because he was not being forthcoming. 

“No.” 

“Is it dangerous?”

“For you yes maybe.” Vincent turned to Catherine and lightly pressed his lips to hers before dressing and leaving the area going toward the front. “I’ll be fine.”

Catherine put her own clothing back on and fought back her inner curiosity to follow him. As she approached the side door, she heard a feminine voice behind her. That stopped her hand from pressing on the door. 

Her mind fired off questions wondering who the woman was. It seemed her mind was racing on its own with no help from her. She shifted to lean on the door again and noticed she did not have her camera. 

“Damn it.” Catherine knew now that she would have to go back for it, and it might look like she was disregarding Vincent’s warning. 

Catherine approached where she thought the camera was, and kept glancing in the direction where Vincent had gone. She never even caught one glance of him or the woman. 

She turned in a circle looking for the camera knowing it must be close. After taking a few steps toward the upraised planter bed that had the ferns on it she heard a clicking sound. 

Off to the side, she saw the camera pointed at the planter where they had rolled around naked. It was clicking taking photo after photo without any flash. “Seriously?” 

Catherine retrieved the camera and turned it off the setting that was causing it to take pictures. 

She tapped her foot thinking about how the camera must have picked up everything they had done. Her shoe stopped thumping on the floor when she had the idea to look over the photos of them…together. 

Heat rushed over her skin, but this time it was not from being nervous. The rush of adrenalin was from remembering how his body felt moving against her. 

Catherine’s lips parted and she took in a deep breath. She turned on the viewer to look over the photographic evidence of the hotness that was earlier. 

Catherine started at the beginning and kept pressing the button over and over. The photos flashed on the viewer like some type of animation. Her heart thundered as she watched him move over her tasting her skin under the blue light of the lantern. 

Her body throbbed with need again as her eyes ate up each photo that depicted what had just happened not too long ago in that very room. 

Catherine lost all sense of time as she continued. She eventually stopped pressing the button when she landed on the photo of the moment she strained against Vincent while she screamed out her release. 

Her eyes flickered to Vincent’s face in the photo, and she zoomed in needing more detail. 

She saw a light trace of blue vein on his neck as he stretched growling and a light golden glow to his eyes was evident. Hunger, desire, triumph were also present in his expression.

Catherine pressed the button again to see water splashing. A giggle escaped her lips as she remembered sinking in the water as he sank inside of her finding his own release. 

That snapped her out of her trance, and she turned the camera off before putting it away. She was almost proud she had the presence of mind to turn it off first.

When she exited the side of the building, she glanced at her vehicle thinking that Vincent should already be there. 

He was not. 

Catherine tipped her head to the side and decided to walk around to the front of the building and see if he perhaps was on his way back inside to find her. With a nod, she strode toward the corner of the building while walking on the grass. 

She moved in and out of shadows in the darkness of night wishing they were holding hands walking together. 

She smiled as she caught a glimpse of the moon peeking out from behind cloud cover. To her, it was a perfect night where she had finally received all the things she had longed for over the years. She found someone that kept her safe, truly listened to her and who she loved and was loved in return. It was a plus that he got her jokes and movie references. 

She finally found her true love, and they could now continue their lives together. She never remembered feeling such a concentration of happiness and optimism for the future. They were together now. They were one. 

Catherine murmured to herself thinking of the Beauty and the Beast book she read when she was young and mixed it with her own real life fairy tale. “Danger. Intrigue…” She stopped walking just as she reached the corner, “Kissing.”

Catherine’s heart stopped beating and all of the air in her lungs rushed out as if she were in the vacuum of space. 

From a few yards away, she watched her dreams shatter like a broken mirror…reflecting all of the things that could have been then smashed into thousands of different sized pieces falling to the ground. 

Catherine watched as a tall leggy redhead pressed her lips for the second time against the man who had been part of her dream come to life. The woman’s arms wrapped around him as he made no attempt to get away or to even persuade her against her course of action. They turned in a half circle and it appeared as if he were leaning down to her to deepen the kiss. 

Catherine’s mind told her there must be an explanation as to why he was kissing another woman. Another beautiful woman…only minutes after they were naked together in the Conservatory. 

Her mind kept offering that there must have been reasons why he sent her out the side door so that she would not see the redhead. 

Catherine gasped as tears dropped from her eyes. No. She decided she could not listen to the half of her mind that offered false hope. 

Happiness was gone. All that remained was an emptiness that was once filled with thoughts of the future. It was not a complete void as there remained a flicker of hope that was being buffeted on all sides by the harsh reality of what she saw. 

Vincent’s hands moved up as if to hold the woman around the waist, and Catherine found the strength to move backwards. Her eyes were locked on them and the only way she could stop watching was when she went backwards around the corner again. 

She trembled once she was out of eyesight. Her back pressed to the wall as one hand gripped her stomach that threatened to heave up its contents as waves of nausea broke against her system. What once was joy was now pain as she gave in to the familiar sense of loneliness and desolation. 

Her trembling voice managed between muffled sobs. “I’m one of many.” 

Catherine’s mind now finished for her telling her she was one of many women who allowed themselves to believe the lie that true love exists, to believe the lie that they are special to one man and to think that the man they slept with and gave themselves to gives a damn about them. 

The ruin of her heart was complete as the pieces that were from Vincent ripped out leaving gaping holes that bled with all the sputtering spray like the fountain they had fallen into. 

Catherine felt the life draining out of her as if the wound was real. She was almost huddled on the ground against the building when she heard a woman’s voice.

“I told you I heard something. I really did. I know it.” 

Adrenaline coursed in her veins filling the holes and allowed her to stand to her feet again. 

She wiped violently at the tears on her face and neck to remove them before that woman came around the corner. 

“See I told you.” A soft and fluidly feminine voice offered. 

Catherine was thankful where she stood was in shadow, so the woman could not see the bright redness and puffiness of her face. “Hello.” 

“Who are you?” The redhead inquired while holding onto Vincent’s arm. 

Catherine saw a flicker of gold, and she knew that Vincent’s senses allowed him to know exactly what state she was in at the moment. She now knew he understood that she saw what happened between him and the other woman and how hard it hit her. 

She was too mortified to speak, and only gripped her and camera bag closer. 

Vincent opened his mouth to say Catherine, but it did not come out right. “Caaaaamera woman…”

“The photographer?” The redhead questioned him. 

Vincent nodded. “Photo shoot…for…the book.”

“Oh that makes sense. Hi. I’m Alex. The fiancé.”

Catherine’s voice managed to sound calm. “Fiancé?” 

“Yes, I guess you haven’t heard about me. He had to keep it secret because of Muirfield and all. But he is back and they are not a threat anymore, so hey…do you want photos of us together?” 

Catherine didn’t even listen to Vincent’s rebuttal that it would not be appropriate for the book nor did she see Vincent’s expressions trying to explain what was happening. She kept hearing the words photos of us together.

All Catherine could think was that she was just the camera woman, and she had just kissed and had sex with a taken man. She believed it made her a cheater. It was something she had never been before. She had helped someone cheat on their future spouse. Somehow that made it all the more worse. It made what she thought they had an even bigger slap in the face. 

She berated herself in her mind calling herself a tramp. It was one of Heather’s favorite words for women like that…like her. 

Her mind ran over all the reasons she gave herself before as reasons why she should have kept her hands to herself. If this was even a possibility, it would have worked in a second. She would never willingly touch a man that was in a committed relationship. Their magical moment in the Conservatory now felt cheep, sleazy and wrong.

Her stomach clenched again as dizziness floated over her causing her vision to waver.

Vincent knew what was happening and shifted to step closer to Catherine. 

Alex gripped his arm tighter, so he stayed in place and watched helplessly as Catherine battled alone. 

Catherine managed to keep herself upright as it subsided. 

She didn’t want him to see how upset she was. She hated it that he could detect what was happening even if the Alex woman was oblivious. 

Her mind said the word together. Together. A picture of them together. 

Catherine’s hand clenched tighter on the camera bag as her mind offered images she had just looked over minutes ago of her with Vincent…together. 

The images that brought lust and remembered desire were now a sickness of shame and degradation. 

Catherine thought that she obviously meant nothing to him but a slab of meat. Her mind offered slutty tramp in Heather’s voice. 

It was a phrase Heather used a lot when she broke up with Joe’s younger brother. He had cheated on her with a woman who gave him money to open a club. Heather was delighted when the club went under and Evan asked her out. 

Catherine lost the battle with her stomach as she fell to her knees releasing the sparse contents. 

Alex shrieked when fluid sprinkled her black and red shoes. 

Vincent moved forward taking Catherine’s arm.

Alex let him as she fussed with her matching purse to get out a tissue. “This is the reason I stopped nursing clinicals and became a paralegal.”

“Don’t touch me.” Catherine almost fell back trying to stop him from gripping her. “Don’t ever touch me again.” 

Vincent was only able to hear the whisper that was Catherine’s voice because his Beast self was close to the surface. 

He released her and whispered back. “I can explain.”

Catherine had heard that before. She had watched this scene play out in her office and in court many times. Then the naive female who wanted the nightmare to stop believed what was offered even if it was something so outlandish it would not even be believable on a SciFi original movie. 

Catherine felt the tide change and her world moved back to her allowing her boundaries that once protected her to snap back into place. 

Vincent watched it happen and mourned unknowing to Catherine as she would not look him in the eye. 

Catherine rose to her feet. “You have explained. I’m the camera woman and she is the fiancé.”

Vincent stood speechless between the women. He knew his actions would threaten one woman’s sanity or the other. He had to side with helping the side that was weakest. He kept his distance from Catherine. 

Catherine glanced at Alex and felt shamed guilt knowing that Alex seemed to be unaware that her man had just cheated on her. 

She opened her mouth to confess believing that the other woman deserved to know what manner of man she was with, but different words came out. “I’m sorry about…the shoes. I’m not feeling well today, and should have canceled the photo shoot. But you see. We have deadlines. I really must be going.” 

Alex nodded and took Catherine’s arm. “I’m sorry too. You’re sick, and I yelled. Here. I’ll help you to your car. Get the camera for her.”

Vincent obeyed and picked up the discarded camera off the grass. 

“I can manage.” Catherine didn’t want Alex touching her or being nice to her because it made the guilt worse. 

“Don’t be silly. I don’t mind. It’s just that some things make me remember my nursing clinicals. It makes me think of the towers falling. That is where I was the day it happened. I was taking care of other people when I needed to take care of myself. Now I work to afford to help pay for a small clinic. One of the perks of where I work is I get Christian Louboutin hand me down shoes from the attorneys. They wear them to a couple of events then give them to me. Can you believe she paid over eight hundred for these?”

Alex continued in a different path when Catherine didn’t speak. 

“I talk about frivolous things to stop myself from talking about serious things. I thought he died there when the tower well you know. I don’t really like talking about it. I don’t know why I am now. It’s just that I thought he was dead you see, but now he’s alive. I didn’t know he survived then went off to war to defend the country. We’ve been together since we were just kids. I’m just so glad he is back and alive.”

Catherine glanced up and saw tears of joy trace down Alex’s face. 

Catherine looked back down and let the other woman guide her to the parking area knowing that she could not shatter Alex’s world the way her own had just been torn apart. 

Based on what Alex had just spoken, Catherine understood that Alex and Vincent had a long term relationship that spanned decades. 

Catherine pointed out her vehicle as she absently wondered how many times Vincent had cheated on Alex. “Stop it.” 

“What?” Alex patted on Catherine’s arm.

“I mean I stopped right here. This is where I stopped and parked. I should have gone around back, but silly me. I parked here. Thank you. It was nice to meet you. Both of you.”

“Let us know how the photos turn out.” Alex beamed and took the camera from Vincent to give it to Catherine who was already getting in her car. 

“Oh yes. I will pass them on to Evan. He will get back with you.” Alex nodded and forced herself to smile as she started her vehicle and pulled away. 

Her mind offered that Evan had tried to keep them apart. Maybe Evan was trying to protect her. 

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” Catherine screamed alone in her car. 

She made it out of the Conservatory parking and pulled into a gas station. She barged in and went straight for the ladies room before she lost it again. 

There was nothing left in her stomach as her body jerked dry heaving. She washed her hands and fumbled with her cell phone.

Catherine knew she could not call Heather, so she dialed the only other person who might understand how she felt. 

“I need you.” Catherine’s voice hitched.

“Are you hurt? Where are you?” The strong female voice demanded. 

“I’m not hurt. Not physically anyway. I can’t drive right now. Can you come to me?” 

“You still at the plant place?”

“No. The gas station just next to it.”

“Joe took me there once.”

“To a gas station?” Catherine’s voice didn’t sound as desperate as earlier. 

“Don’t be a dork. I was his plus one. It was some give us your money thing that happened after his divorce. We filled up at the station when we left. What are you doing right now? Pretending to shop?”

Catherine almost smiled as she heard a car door close on the other end of the line. “No. I’m hiding in the restroom with the door locked trying not to touch anything.”

“I’m in my car.” Tess floored it into the busy New York night traffic. 

Catherine heard Tess turn on her sirens and finally smiled. 

“Be there soon.” Tess continued. 

“Sirens are supposed to be for emergencies Tess.” The familiar conversation settled Catherine’s stomach. 

“My BFF’s having serious guy mayhem. What could be more of an emergency?” Tess’ voice held a hint of amusement.

“No one says that anymore.” Catherine washed her hands again. “I feel better now. I’m going to get a drink and wait in my car.”

“Copy that.” Tess hung up her phone and cussed a taxi cab that attempted to cut her off.


	8. Comrades

Tess leaned over and pushed the passenger door open. “So what happened?”

“It’s too horrible to even talk about. So let’s talk about this car. When did you get this?” Catherine locked up her vehicle and climbed into the blue GT500. 

“Yesterday. It was a present. This 2013 baby has 662 hp and tops out over two hundred.” 

“That’s a lot of horse power.” Catherine tried to distract Tess from talking about the reason why she was there. 

“Yeah. My new bright and shiny toy is fast. Aren’t ya girl?” Tess ran a hand over the dash then revved the engine spinning the tires as she shot out into the road. 

“So what’s the problem?”

Catherine took a breath thinking so much for distraction. “Speaking of fast. Fast turns out to be my problem. I moved too fast. With a guy. He was already taken.”

Tess almost snorted then squinted her eyes in disbelieve at Catherine. “Cat. You’re anything but fast when it comes getting dirty.”

“Not this time unfortunately.” Catherine stopped looking at Tess and watched the road knowing her face was red again. 

“Seriously? Did you just get laid?” Tess sounded excited at the possibility. “Did you ride the Sexy Beast guy?”

“Don’t call him that.” Catherine spat out. 

“You did. Now you have what? Riders remorse?” Tess stopped at a red light and turned to Catherine.

“No. More like riders guilt. Didn’t you hear me say he was taken?” 

“Yeah. And by that flush I’d say for several laps around the Gawd Yes Track. Tell me I’m wrong.” 

Catherine folded her arms. “It’s green.” 

“Fine. Fine.” Tess raised a hand. “You said taken. He married?” Tess pretended to concentrate on traffic. 

“No. Not yet.” 

“Engaged?”

Catherine nodded, and her mind whispered in Heather’s voice that she was a tramp again. 

“Did you find out before or after?”

“After.”

“Ok. You went at it hot and dirty, found out he’s engaged, left him and called me. Now, you feel guilty. That about right?” 

“Not exactly, but close enough.” 

Tess huffed out air. “Guy’s an ass, but you did nothing wrong.”

“What I did was meet her just after.”

“No shit?”

“No shit. I got sick and she helped me to my car.” Catherine put her hands over her face. “It felt like more than just sex. It felt like we connected like there was more there. He already knows me. He’s been following me. Protecting me. He knows my family and now it’s all too horrible.”

“He’s stalking you.” Tess’ voice took on an edge that Catherine recognized. 

Catherine lowered her hands and peered eye to eye with Tess. “No. Not stalking. Protecting. Don’t go all cop on me. You’re here as a friend remember? Just tell me men are assholes and leave it at that.”

“Men are assholes. There feel better?”

“No. Not yet anyway.” 

“You’ve only just met him and he messed you up this bad. What game was he playing?”

Catherine shook her head knowing she would sound like countless women before. “I was special and the only one who could…tame the Beast.”

“If we’re woman enough, we can save them. Fuck that. We’re not the doctor. It’s not our job to fix them just so they can turn right around and claim we are trying to change them. And we’re not their mothers either. It’s not our job to baby their fragile fucken male egos. Oooh you’re brave and big I trust you and will do whatever you say blindly.” 

“Issues?” Catherine didn’t interrupt Tess till she ran a stop sign waving her hand in the air. 

“Sorry. We got into it. I don’t like being told what to do. He knows that. I’m not some trophy wife. I have my own mind and career. The car is part of the makeup that’s supposed to be happening.” 

Catherine pointed out a bar and Tess nodded. 

“Ok thing is he got an offer at a great job, but it’s in Connecticut. What the hell am I supposed to do in doily-ville? Catch jaywalkers? He said I don’t have to move, but it will cause distance like he had with the ex you know because of the distance. I’m afraid if I don’t move with him then that means the start of the end. We’ve only been married a year.” 

“I’m sorry Tess.” 

“We’re not here about me. Tell me more about Mr. Taken Ass.” Tess pulled into a parking spot and turned the car off knowing they would sit for a while. 

“He was wonderful and complicated. It was great until it wasn’t. I thought I might have found the one.” Catherine became silent and watched people getting in and out of cars.

“Yes. He could be the one. Then there is the Mr. Two then three. That’s why you need to date more. I’m not saying sleep around, but just date more. Try out different kind of guys and see what works for you. You can’t pin your hopes and dreams on one guy. You have your own life.” 

“I know. It just makes me a cheater because he was already taken.” Catherine took her driver’s license and debit card out of her purse and shoved them into her pocket. 

“Hey it’s not that bad. You didn’t know remember?” Tess did the same with her cards. 

“Yes that’s right. I’m not that woman. I’m not some slutty tramp who knowingly slept with a taken guy.” Catherine jutted out her jaw and ground her feet into the floorboard. 

“Thanks a lot. Heather.” Tess raised an eyebrow. 

“I’m just talking about me. I didn’t mean you. Joe was already separated and getting a divorce when the two of you started up.” Catherine spoke quickly. 

Tess’ eyebrow rose higher. 

“Well, they were separated.” Catherine tried to correct.

Tess took a deep breath and huffed out.

“They were sleeping in different beds.” Catherine grasped at anything that might help.

Tess folded her arms. 

“They were pretending to be a couple?” Catherine’s voice went up at the end. 

“It’s alright. Yes. They were pretending that they were still a happy couple. They rarely saw each other, but when they did they tried to pretend. She even told me that after the divorce. She said maybe I could make him happy that he deserved it. I think she really cared for him once upon a time.”

Catherine didn’t know what to say to that.

Tess shrugged her shoulders. “Joe and my relationship is strong and should stand some distance. We would just have to work on seeing each other as much as possible. Right?”

“Right.”

“And what was up with you channeling Heather?”

“She’s talking in my head, so it just came out my mouth.”

“Uh hu. I think we need that drink.”

“I think you’re right.” Catherine was thankful to get out of Tess’ make up present and closer to the liquor. She wanted to erase most of the day. “It wasn’t all bad or fake I think.”

Tess knew Catherine was meaning the Beast and that she was probably right, and Tess knew that it was also true of Joe and his ex’s relationship. 

Tess decided to make light with her reply. “That’s what she said.”

Catherine laughed as she watched Tess pantomime and shimmy her hips, which caused a couple of men to yell out as they walked into the bar. 

…………………….

Catherine woke up the next day to her cell phone ringing. “Hello?”

“Catherine. It’s me. I want to explain.”

His deep reverberating voice shot her awake, and she dropped the cell phone on the floor off the edge of her bed. 

She practically fell out of bed and pressed the end button. She set it down on her nightstand only then realizing what just happened. 

Catherine climbed back into bed and pulled the covers over her head as if it would protect her. 

The ringing sounded again. She checked, and it showed unknown. It went to messaging. 

This happened again then on the next time she answered it but did not speak.

“Catherine? Catherine. I’m sorry. Let me explain…” 

“No. You don’t have to explain anything to the camera woman.” She ended the call and was proud her voice stayed even and low. 

When the cell phone rang again, she waited for it to go to message then called in sick to work. There was no way she was going to be able to keep a straight dry face if her clients and everyone around her complained about their problems. 

She wanted peace. She wanted quiet. She powered off her phone. 

Catherine then forced herself to take yet another too hot shower as she did when Tess dropped her off early that morning. She ate Mini Wheat’s and checked emails. 

By the time she was done eating, she had worked herself up into a state of anger thinking about how gullible she was with Vincent and how he was calling pretending like it would be ok. 

She kept faltering and her eyes filled up with tears, but the anger rushed in to save her from hyperventilating in a crying fit…again. 

She instinctively went to her DVD player and dropped in her favorite movie for when she was feeling down. She grabbed ice cream and sulked in her robe. 

Half way in watching the Return to Snowy River, she started arguing with the fictional characters on her television. “Don’t Jess her. It’s your fault for being stupid. How dare you? And she can play whatever music she wants!” 

Catherine turned off the movie and went to her laptop that was sitting near a closed window. She opened it while looking out over the fire escape and the street below. 

“I may have fallen for it, but no one else is if I have anything to say about it.” Catherine spoke to herself as she logged in at the Beast fan site. 

Catherine stabbed at the keys creating a new thread in the forum called Cheating Beast and typed the words… ‘I Ammmm No Longer Hot for the Beast. I only found out after that The Ass has a fiancé. FIANCE!!!! He has been with Alex forever apparently. Don’t fall for the touch of his heated skin. Don’t fall for his glowing amber eyes. He is not a Sexy Beast, but a Cheating Beast and an Ass!!!!!!!!!!! I hope she is not reading this. But to all you Beasties out there……..Don’t fall for the Cheating Beast because he will only break your heart like he broke mine.’

Catherine logged out feeling energized and empowered. She slammed the laptop shut harder then she meant to then headed to her back up gym. It was one she used whenever she didn’t want to be spotted by coworkers. 

She felt no guilt as it had been more than a year since she called in for any reason and there was nothing important on the roster that day seeing as the following day was Christmas Eve. 

Catherine spent the rest of the day trying her best to ignore that her world had fell apart. 

…………………….

The following day, Catherine was dressed in a tight black dress for her family’s Christmas dinner party when she decided to check her emails. She wanted to see if there were any time changes that her mother might have sent via email.

“Oh my gawd.” Catherine gaped at a folder she made for the Beast fan site. It boasted 1,823 new emails. 

“What? Must be a glitch.” She continued talking to herself.

She clicked on the folder knowing that she only told the site to send emails to her when someone replied to her posts. 

Catherine froze and didn’t open any of the emails as her mind offered that she had posted yesterday in anger. 

She stood up and walked away from the laptop in denial as fear rolled over her body. She pondered if he had perhaps tricked that many women with his sad story. She stopped backing up when she realized if it was true just how un-special she was to him. Every time she thought about it the emotions smacked her as if it just happened.

The last flicker of hope died as she thought of her mortification of him seeing how badly she took it when she knew about Alex. “Nothing but a notch.” 

It was something that she had heard a client the week before say when she complained she was just another notch on a man’s headboard. 

Her hands trembled as she went to the site and clicked on her main post knowing she could just scroll over the replies. 

The first one said: You met him? Saw him naked? Touched him? OMG OMG! Really? Seriously? Who cares if he has a fiancé! I’d bang him anyway. Lucky bitch.

The second one said: Shut up. Can’t you see she’s hurting? He used her. Men can be scum and he is an ass…The Ass. Don’t feel bad. It’ll be ok. Stop angry posting.

The third one said: Were you the photographer? There was a post on the ‘I Spy the Beast’ thread that said he was going to a Conservatory and they believed it was for a photo shoot since the place was closed early. You’re the photographer right? For the book right? Is that right? You found out after you had sex with him that he has a woman. That’s not your fault. I agree his is scum, but what hot scum at that. The Cheating Beast is henceforth dubbed the Cheating Scum Beast. 

The fourth one said: Shut up all of you. Don’t you people know who Alex is? Don’t any of you follow or read the Vincent (yes he has a name) Facts thread? Obviously not! Alex is not his fiancé. Alex was his brother’s fiancé. His brother died in the towers on 9/11 and Alex became unstable. Stephanie where are you? Post something here because they have lost their minds. Stephanie was in nursing school with Alex. They called her Lexie back then and when he died she lost it and had to leave the program. They said she had a mental break down and kept thinking that Vincent was his brother. Vincent has known her since they were teens and probably before that. He cared for her as a person and it is because he is an honorable guy that he is probably going along with Alex. He is obviously trying to help Alex! She is not nor has she ever been Vincent’s woman. Get your facts straight before you bash an honored veteran who served his country. And he is not some stud to gawk at…he is a person and his name is Vincent. 

Catherine stopped reading and sat back after she read several replies after that confirming the fourth poster’s facts. Alex was not his fiancé. She was unstable mentally. 

Catherine turned on her cell phone remembering that just before she turned it off that she erased his number and history. She wondered if he would call again or if he left a message.

Catherine’s mind told her it made sense now, but she could not listen. She spaced out and sat there till her cell phone beeped with a text from Heather saying that Catherine needed to remember to bring their mother’s gift. 

Catherine absently texted back that she would. 

Her eyes kept going to her screen. There were people angry at her and others writing in her defense saying that she could not have known and that her feelings are justified. Others just wanted sexual details. 

Catherine tried to delete the post, but it said she could not because there were already replies to it. “No shit.”

She settled for editing it saying that she met him and misunderstood him. She went to the very end and left a reply saying she met Alex and didn’t understand she had mental issues. She further wrote that Vincent did not say anything to the contrary at the time and now she knows why. She ended with saying she was sorry. 

Catherine walked away from the laptop when her cell rang, and she saw that it was Tess. 

“Tess I messed up.” 

“Ya think so? What do you mean angry posting?”

“What?” Catherine had meant in reacting to the situation without letting him explain who Alex really was and that he was trying to help her. 

“Angry posting is always a bad idea.”

“You saw that? You knew it was me?”

“Cat. After the story you told me last night of course I knew it was you. Who else knows you were taking pics of the Sexy Ass last night?”

Catherine sputtered for a few moments then found the ability to speak. “Heather. Maybe Evan…maybe not. Oh my gawd I don’t know.”

“Delete the post.” 

“I tried that. I could only edit it in the end.”

“Contact the site and tell them you want the post deleted.” Tess’ voice was firm. 

“Ok. I’ll do it now.” 

Catherine was even too distracted to ask Tess how she came across the post in the first place, so Tess offered. “I was the second post. I still think he is an ass.” 

Catherine hung up on her and sent a message to the site asking the post to be removed and her account deleted. She prayed that Heather did not see the post and know it was her. 

Catherine clicked on it seeing that there were several comments after hers. 

The very next comment after her ‘I’m sorry post’ said: You stopped taking my calls, so this is the only way I have to contact you. It’s ok. There was no way you could have known. I wanted to explain and I do feel like an Ass because of how it made you feel. I had to play along for her sake. She’s very fragile right now. I took her back to her aunt’s house where they take care of her. Just so you know it’s me…I Beasted out, but didn’t throw the bench. Can I still come tonight? V.

Catherine blinked several times and read it as many. She saw the account was just created, there was only one post and the username was The Ass. 

“It’s him. He’s The Ass.” Catherine practically yelled into her cell phone when Tess picked up.

“Cat? Please tell me you’re not angry posting again.”

“No. I replied that I was sorry and he replied back. He’s the Ass.” 

“Why what did he say?”

“No. His username is The Ass. Read it. Wait. I’ll read it to you.” 

Tess listened to the post being read then about ten minutes worth of Cat freaking out. “Ok ok. Call him.”

“I can’t.”

“Yes you can. Just call him and say it was a misunderstanding and clear the air.”

“No. I can’t. I deleted his number and all my call history.” 

“Fine. Reply to him and say he can come tonight and talk.”

“Wait. You’re telling me to comment again?”

“Just this once. You know your family thing is in like an hour. I’m trying to get ready.” 

“You’re coming?”

“Didn’t you get Heather’s text? Between her and your father they invited half of New York.”

“It is supposed to be a family dinner party.”

“Not anymore. See ya there.” 

Cat replied just as Tess told her and glanced over some of the replies to his reply. There were countless women and men throwing themselves at Vincent. They said things like yes he could come tonight and with them naked. They were asking what throwing a bench was code for and they would be willing to try it. 

“What a mess.” Cat almost logged off when she saw a reply to her reply.

It said: I’ll be there. V 

It was the second comment by The Ass. 

Catherine logged off hoping that the post would be deleted soon. She opened her window and stepped out on the fire escape. The moon was just as bright as the night before. 

She remembered her wish that they could walk hand in hand under it. She wanted to go back to that happy place before she misunderstood what happened, but feared she could not. The pain came from what felt to be real at the time and telling herself it was not what happened did not make the damage go completely away.

Catherine stood in the chilling December wind that started to sprinkle snowflakes on her coatless form. 

She spoke trying to hold herself to reality and to let go of the phantom pain that lingered. “Alex is not his fiancé. She’s not. He cares about me. And, I care for…” 

Catherine couldn’t say the ending that she cared about him, but saying that he cared was enough. She pressed her hand to her heart willing it to be put back together. 

The winter gusts pulled at her hair, and she took the clips out not caring how she looked. 

She closed her eyes with a smile feeling the slow restoration of her heart never knowing she was being watched by the man who was the reason for the breaking and the mending. 

Heat moved over her body as her heart beat again to the unspoken word…Vincent.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it’s time for a hot kiss don’t you?

Catherine arrived at her parent’s house a little unnerved that JT was waiting at the steps for her.

He handed her a note then went inside. 

Catherine opened it. It read: Catherine, I’m a little worried about showing up. Send me a message if it is truly alright with you. V.

Catherine fumbled with her phone and quickly found one of his messages and typed: I guess.

He instantly messaged back: Are you still upset?

She replied: Yes, but I’m trying.

When she entered, her parents were already standing there. 

Her father watched as her mother spoke. “Come in from the cold. Are you ok?”

Catherine forced a smile while glancing over them. “Yes.”

Catherine’s father raised an eyebrow as if he didn’t believe her. 

“I’m fine. Why? What’s going on?” 

Heather strode into the entryway wearing a bright red dress. “A party silly! Here give me the gifts. I’m organizing them. Say hi to everyone. Single ladies must mingle. Where are the Beast photos?” 

Catherine was typing another reply to Vincent and absently responded to her sister. “In my purse.”

Catherine handed the bags over and smoothed her hair down remembering she never fixed it after the wind had blown it all over. 

Catherine smiled and nodded at dozens of people who seemed to be overjoyed at meeting her. 

Heather beamed. “And here is the mayor.” 

“It is very nice to meet you. My wife has cri…waited all day to see how it…how you are doing?” 

Catherine’s smile froze at his strange sentence. “How I’m doing?”

“Oh hi there. Love the dress. How are you holding up?” The mayor’s wife leaned in obviously expecting something from her.

Catherine tried not to jerk back and patted her hand. “I’m holding up ok.” 

Catherine wished now she had left the clips in her hair as she believed it make her appear disheveled. “I’m just a little frazzled. It’s all the wind. I’m fine, and I love your dress. Is that cerulean?”

“Yes, and not to worry dear the wind will die down. It always does.” She elderly lady winked at her before the couple walked away. Catherine noticed that the mayor’s wife and several other people were looking at her then to their phones.

Catherine wondered why it was such a big deal that she showed up late.

Catherine grinned and chatted long enough to be polite then extracted herself to the back of the house. She slipped into the library window seat where she finally logged into her phone again and messaged Vincent back once more. 

 

An hour later, Tess strode into the library and jerked Catherine’s cell phone out of her hands. “For gawds sake stop it. This is worse than angry posting.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Catherine wished Tess would keep her voice down as several people who were reading were now watching them. 

“Wrong with me? You’re the one make up posting.” Tess held up her own phone. 

Catherine saw what she just typed on it. “I don’t understand.” 

“You were posting.” Tess turned to the room. “None of you are really reading books are you?”

Catherine saw several people shaking their heads no as books tipped so she could they had their cell phones and iPads inside their books they pretended to read. 

“I checked my email then replied to…a message. I was replying to a post from the email? You mean everything I typed…every photo he sent…”

“Was posted to the fangirl site for the world to read. Touch me here…lick me there. Yep.” Tess shook her head yes. 

Catherine felt herself tugged into a bedroom. “What am I going to do?” 

Tess’ voice was flat as she shifted her eyes back and forth. “For one, delete your account. Two, never type the words Sexy Beast Sex or The Sex Kiss on your phone again…ever. SBS is all over the net now. I’m tired already of SBS. Third, what is the whole Bench Tossing sex thing? There are entire conspiracy cults forming. Spill it.”

“He picked up a bench and was going to toss it.” Catherine tried to breathe knowing that almost every person she knew would read what she had typed back and forth with Vincent. 

She remembered typing what she wanted Vincent to do with his tongue and that he had typed out other interesting things he wanted to do to her body. “Oh my gawd. My dad is going to hear about this. My boss. My college teachers. My co-workers. My clients!”

“Yeah and Santa Claus. You’ve been a naughty naughty girl…now tell me the truth.” 

“I didn’t know I was posting where other people could read it.”

“I know that. Tell me the truth about Bench Tossing.”

“He got mad and almost threw a bench.”

Tess shook her head. “If it’s really about tossing a real bench then for the sake of everything holly I’m just going to post that now.”

Tess tapped away on her phone. 

“They’re posting about bench tossing?” Catherine’s voice was up several octaves. Catherine wondered if perhaps Muirfield had her in some type of a coma and were running test on her. 

“Yes. I think you might need to take a leave of absence. You can cite stupidity.” Tess smirked. 

Catherine said nothing.

“I told them Bench Tossing was throwing a real bench not some new sex position, but they’re not buying it. They keep commenting about it having something to do with piano benches and the CAT position. I always meant to try the CAT and piano benches or chairs without arms can be interesting. Maybe Joe might like…”

“Tess. It’s not funny.” Catherine shook her head.

“I know.” Tess pointed to her cell. “You left him in a bad position. Just tell him to come.”

“I’m not going to post more sex stuff.” Catherine paced back and forth.

Tess leaned against the bed rail. “For gawds sake. I mean tell him to come in here already not come as in finish himself off. Gawd. Give me some credit.”

“I’m sorry. This is just a little much.” Catherine sat down on the bed and stared at her hands. 

Tess turned around and typed: Ok guys so you know what Bench Tossing is now leave her alone. Ass if you can see this go to where she is. More groveling needed.

“What are you doing?”

“Letting everyone down gently so I don’t get death threats.” Tess put her cell in her pocket. “I tried to let him know it’s safe to come on by now.”

“Thank you.” 

“I’ll tell Heather to make excuses. She’s not feeling well bla blab bla, which no one in their right mind will believe but what can ya do. She wanted your help with something in about an hour, but I’ll take care of it.”

“Ok.” 

Catherine sat alone and scrolled to the top of the message where Vincent started apologizing by taking photos of himself kneeling in various places in town with a sign that said ‘From The Ass: Please forgive me for being one. V.’

She scrolled past the message where she asked him if he had tossed any benches lately. He typed he only felt like tossing benches around her. The photo showed him kneeling next to bench with a sign that said: You tame my Beast. I hurt you emotionally. I couldn’t find a way around it. Please forgive me. PS There is no one but you. Sincerely The Ass who did not mean to be a pain in yours. 

She paused on another one when he was drenched in water standing in a fountain with a sign that read: I only fall for you. Hopefully The former Ass. 

She glanced at her message where she said he could now remove the word The from his title and also remove his wet shirt. 

He did in the next one. 

Catherine lay back on the bed. “And it went downhill from there.” 

She thought about every sexual detail and talent he professed he would use to pay homage to her body in worship as he posted pictures with less clothing. She remembered that she took photos of her own hair saying that she would trace the windswept locks over his naked… 

“My father is going to read that before the end of the day.”

“Not if JT has anything to say about it.” A deep voice reverberated around the room and Catherine sat straight up on the bed then turned toward the window. 

“Vincent?”

He stepped forward wearing a tuxedo and kneeled at her feet. “JT is taking the site down. Tomorrow morning, the papers will all report that the site was hijacked, your phone was hacked and none of the communications really came from us.”

Catherine wanted to believe it was fixable, but her brain nagged at her. “The photos of you?”

“Never showed my face. Neither did you. It was all Photoshop anyway. They will find evidence of that.” His deep voice sent warm waves over her legs that were bare to him because of her short dress. 

“The Conservatory?” 

“Video surveillance leaked showing that the guard walked around all night just as your father is now paying him to say. It was closed early for extermination.”

“My father…”

“He knows about the hack and is thankful to JT for finding it so quickly. It was smart thinking on your half to have him meet you here before the party to try to stop it.” 

Catherine thought it over. “Yes very smart of me.”

“I’m just sorry that once again I did something that hurt you. First, I was more worried about her having a collapse then you having one. Second, I tried to make it up to you by groveling in messages that turned out to be comments on a post. Third, I … I’m sure I’ll mess something up before the night is over like not taking every opportunity to tell you how special you are to me and how I would die for you again if it came to it.”

Catherine took in a shaky breath knowing the pain was not all gone. “Don’t talk like that. You thought she might try to kill herself…again.”

Vincent leaned back as his forehead wrinkled.

“I did some reading. It was worse than what was commonly known. I looked in the court records where they had to admit her when she thought her fiancé rose from the dead back from the war.”

“She’s home with her aunt now, and it doesn’t matter. I put someone before you. It will never happen again.” Vincent put his hands on either side of her legs on the bed causing it to dip down bringing her closer to him. 

Catherine pulled his arm trying to get him to stand instead of kneeling at her feet. 

He pulled back staying where he was. 

“Vincent. I don’t want you to stop protecting people. I should have waited for an explanation before going off the deep end.”

“Like I said, it’s not your fault, so stop trying to find a way to make what I did ok. It wasn’t.”

Vincent looked over her shapely and slender legs. “Besides, I like kneeling at your feet. Gives me one hell of a view and I like you going off the deep end but only when it’s with me…into a fountain.” 

Catherine rested her hands on his shoulders and remembered them falling into water together. Heat spread up over her body, but it was not embarrassment causing it this time. 

His eyes shot down then back up to her eyes. 

“So you like kneeling and going off deep ends with me?”

“Groveling has its advantages.” Vincent’s hands inched closer to the sides of her legs.

Catherine nodded yes and touched the edge of one shoe to his leg.

His hands advanced up to touch the black fabric of her dress that was already hiked up farther than propriety would allow. 

Slowly, very slowly and softly he traced down her thighs over her knees to her ankles. 

Catherine leaned back bracing her hands on the bed as the muscles in her legs trembled from the tingling sensation. It was almost more sensation than she could stand. 

“Vincent.” 

His hands slowed as she sat back on his feet. He let go of one ankle and gripped the bottom of her black high heel shoe and placed it on his thigh. 

Catherine looked down the curve of her body to Vincent’s heated gaze that seared her as his treacherous fingers lightly glided over the delicate skin on her ankle as he removed her shoe. 

“Catherine.” He all but whispered her name in deep gravel tones. 

Her eyes half closed as it felt as if his fingers had traced back up her leg and were lightly feathering at the juncture of her hip. 

His touch fanned out over more of her ankle when he settled her bare foot firmly to his muscular thigh. The movement caused the tingling sensation to fan out as well moving between her legs. 

Vincent stopped moving his hand when she pressed down hard on the ball of her foot and breathed deeply in flaring her nose as her eyelids trembled.

“My Catherine.” He rubbed her foot a few moments before he replaced it with the other that still had a shoe. 

Her mind was completely numb to anything but the magnet that was Vincent. He was pulling her back in. Back into his heart. Back into his life with the most delicate of touches. 

“You mean to seduce me with a foot rub?” 

Vincent’s warm hands moved more firmly this time over her calf up to the back of her knee. His fingers glided over areas she did not know would have a direct impact between her legs. She gasped for air and shifted her hips up toward him as if welcoming him inside. 

She panted for him as his hands rubbed lower over her ankle to remove her last shoe. He massaged the arch of her foot then let his finger run between two of her toes. 

Catherine had never found a foot massage to be sensual before, and was not able to control her responses as her heart raced as if his masterful touch were grazing over more sensitive areas of her body that were now throbbing for him. “Foot fetish?”

He finally answered her and kissed the inside of her knee letting his tongue slide just under the bend. “Catherine fetish. And I want a taste.”

She lay back completely on the bed with her legs dangling over the edge as the predator advanced with his lips, teeth, fangs and tongue over her thigh. 

“Mine.”

Catherine remembered that wild untamed voice and peered down into glowing flame gold eyes that hypnotized her like a snake. She knew he could smell her arousal, but felt no shame as he worked farther up her body appearing to enjoy it as much or even more than she was. 

Catherine thought of the heat and steam of the Conservatory and how he had moved over her body like this before. 

She opened her eyes and raised her upper body fully remembering where she was. “Maybe we should wait.” 

Vincent’s eyes stopped glowing and his tongue traced a line just under the black fabric. “You want me to grovel and beg. I’ll beg.”

“Nnno.” Catherine meant that she did not want him to beg but her voice came out husky filled with want, and Vincent took it as his que. 

“Please Catherine. Please let me use my body to pleasure yours. Let me taste you again.” 

Vincent’s breath from each word rushed over the dampness on her upper thigh where his mouth had just worshiped.

Catherine’s voice escaped in half moan and half sigh.

His hands moved up lightly tugging on the material as his fangs descended and fervently traced as well. 

Catherine lay back once again unable to form a coherent thought. “Oh my gawd.”

“Sexy Beast will suffice.” 

Vincent tugged at the dress to where he wanted it, and positioned one of her legs so he would have had an unobstructed view if it were not for a small bit of cloth. “My Catherine. You’re beautiful.”

Vincent leaned forward and used his fangs to rip the black silk cloth off of her body and out of his way. “Please.”

Catherine dug her nails into the fabric of the comforter knowing his mouth was inches away because of the flow of his breath. “Yesss.”

She expected him to move quickly, lick and delve, but he took his maddening time with light caresses and graze of fang that never quite went where she wanted. Catherine squirmed and whimpered till she finally let go of the fabric and went to rise up to meet him. 

That was the moment when he chose to lavish attention on the most sensitive of areas causing an explosion of urgency to rake across her entire body. 

She gripped his hair digging her nails across his scalp harder then she intended. All she knew was that she needed more, and he was going to give it. 

Catherine jerked his head back and to one side. “You want to beg and tease me at the same time?” 

“I…I…”

“Quiet.” Catherine slid off the bed to stand and Vincent followed her. “No.”

Catherine undid his belt and pants giving a tug on all of the cloth covering him. She stepped forward holding his belt in her hand.

Vincent backed up appearing to not fully understand. His legs hit the bed, and he fell down onto it with a little shove from her as she dropped the belt. 

“That’s better.” Catherine climbed over his body and slid the slickness of her core over his throbbing hardness. She worked herself over him not letting him enter. 

Catherine’s eyes glazed over with arousal and she rocked her body over his. “You want to beg? Make it convincing or I’ll just take care of myself.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would…beg if I were you.” Her wicked glare accompanied slow rocking motions as her fingers dug into the fabric of his shirt.

She didn’t mean it, but he seemed to half believe her if his eyes were any indication. 

Vincent growled low in his chest when she worked her hips in quick short strokes that rubbed her pulsing bud. “Catherine please.” 

His deep voice pleaded for his own release. “Please. Mmmmmm I beg you.” 

She all but stopped then one inch at a time meticulously traced her heat over his length. “You want me?”

Vincent’s eyes flamed as his body burned with need at the memory of being buried deep within her heat. “Catherine.”

It was the first time he had spoken her name in his Beast form and it grabbed her full attention. 

She lowered her mouth to his and grazed her tongue in time with her hip’s slide. His tongue joined the dance as he tried to show her what he wanted to do with her body. 

Catherine had tried to tease him to a slow release as he had with her, but it now turned on her. Her breasts hurt with a need to be touched and sucked on. Her legs trembled from wanting to be put to better use helping him thrust inside her. And her heart ached with the need to join completely with him. 

“I’m yours.” Her voice whispered out against his lips.

It was as if a string had been snapped that let loose a caged panther. Catherine felt herself twirl in the air and land bouncing on the bed with her legs thrown to the side. Her hands tried to catch her, but she was flat on her back before she could even have the conscious thought to stop her decent. 

Vincent snapped and growled from the edge of the bed where his eyes burned with molten gold. His growl came out mingled with a word Catherine was too stunned to recognize. 

Vincent leaned forward onto the bed and his talons dug into the fabric tearing it. He then froze and watched her as if he were a beast that had been re-caged. 

Catherine understood and nodded yes. “I trust you.”

Once again he advanced on her with faster than human speed with the help of his talons that dug into the fabric. In the blink of an eye, Catherine felt him on top of her and he went still again.

Her heart hammered against her ribs from the heady adrenalin that coursed in her veins. She was maddeningly aroused and exhilarated from the sense of danger. 

Vincent’s growl reverberated off the walls as he sank his mouth over her pulse in her neck while sliding inside her clenching heat. 

Catherine screamed out at the moisture on her neck with graze of fang and slide of his tongue that coincided with his hard throbbing penetrating body. She had never felt such a concentration of pleasure released over her body. Nothing from the Conservatory compared. 

The waves of release did not end but kept buffeting her body as she clawed and gripped his muscled back. At one point, she was aware of her own teeth digging into his shoulder. It never stopped. He never stopped as he gripped her body to his fighting to work her to another end before the first had time to stop. 

Catherine growled out her own encouragements as her body thundered in time with Vincent. Every muscle used. Every breath one closer as if she raced to an end that was just out of reach. Instinctively she knew that if he faltered or let himself go before her that nothing would allow her release again. Only him. Only like this could she reach the finish line. 

She reached the end of her race with one last grinding thrust like the ribbon stretched out over the finishing line torn in half. His tight grip was the only thing holding her to reality as her body thrashed of its own accord while she fought for air. 

Catherine came back to herself clinging to a muscular form that was now straining. From the roar in her ears, she knew he had crossed the line as well and not long after her. 

Vincent moved next to her cradling her body to his while pressing his face to the back of her head breathing in the scent of her hair. “I love you.”

Catherine had just opened her mouth to speak when she saw the bedroom door opening. She squeaked as she pulled a shredded piece of the comforter over her lower body. 

Tess appeared at the door. “Why does it have to be me?”

“Tess?”

Vincent changed back into his full human form then pulled his pants on with a curse.

“I fend Joe off. I fend Heather off. I arrange a media blackout, and still I’m the one that has to come in here while you’re coming in here. Thanks for that Cat.” 

Vincent and Catherine wordlessly watched as Tess thundered into the room and grabbed Catherine by the arm laying her over on her side. 

It appeared to Vincent as if Tess were grabbing her ass. 

“Do you know what’s worse than angry posting?” Tess inquired with an edge to her voice as she reached into the folds of the now tattered and ripped fabric that once was a comforter that Catherine was now lying on top of.

“Tess!” Catherine flailed on her side trying to pull her dress down not understanding why Tess was even in the room let along man handling her.

“Butt dialing.” Tess pulled away from Catherine holding her phone and pressed the end button. 

Catherine shook her head in disbelief. “Oh my gawd.”

Tess tipped her head down but kept her eyes on Catherine. “I’ve heard enough of that. Oh my gawd this beg for it that. Seriously. All those distracting calls your butt made caused Heather to removed me from having the job of loading and getting the Beast photos ready for the viewing. I told her it looked like a bunch of porn anyway. She thought it was from my phone that sounded as if it were having hot sex.”

“What?” Catherine visibly paled and slid off the bed.

Vincent caught her before she landed in the floor in a heap. 

“You two can wait till I leave the room thank you very much.” Tess took her hand off her hip as she turned to leave the room setting the phone on a dresser. 

“Tess! Is she loading them now?” Catherine pulled away from Vincent and shimmied her dress all the way back into place.

“Everyone’s in there sitting waiting for her to get it ready since I’ve been dismissed.” 

Catherine pushed past her and sprinted for the main hall. 

“Excuse you!” Tess watched Vincent run after her. “What’s the big deal? You have the original Beast and you’re the one that took the photos. Heather probably has the wrong flash drive anyway.”

Vincent caught up with Catherine before she made it to the room where everyone was. “What’s happening?” 

Catherine ignored him, rounded the corner sliding into the door frame for everyone to see. 

All eyes were on her as she attempted to smile and smooth back her hair yet again. She guessed they were going to think she spent all day working on her hair to get that windblown just after sex messy look. 

“Heather?” 

“Over here. I’ve almost got it, and apparently you already have.” 

Barefoot and flushed a deep red, Catherine trotted across the room and took the flash drive out of the laptop just as an image flickered on the screen. 

Heather gasped. “What was that?”

“That was a photo I took for a perfume advertisement. Wrong flash drive. Sorry everyone. I’ll go get the right flash drive now.”

That explanation seemed to pacify most of the observers who were more interested in inspecting Vincent who had taken off his ripped shirt in the hall. His damp skin showcased his powerfully build body. 

Out in the hall again, Heather bombarded Catherine with questions till she caved. “Those were pictures of Vincent and me naked in the Conservatory ok. Happy?”

Catherine noticed she had raised her voice and people in the room she just stepped out of probably heard. “Damn it.”

“Wait. I knew it. All that talk about the site and your phone being hacked was a lie. You slept with him. You had sex with the Beast? He’s The Ass?” 

“Don’t call him that.”

“What? Beast or Ass? Man has he got some abs.” Heather put her hands on her hips knowing for the first time in years she had caught her big sister in a lie. 

“Just stop it. I’ll put about a dozen good photos on another flash drive. I’ll be in mom’s study on her computer.”

Tess strode up to them with Joe close behind. “Now what’s going on?” 

“I’m just getting the photos ready. I don’t need any help.” Catherine’s hand started to tremble as she began to wonder if they would leave her alone to sort out the issue with the photos.

“That’s not what it sounded like earlier.” Joe looked over Catherine inspecting for wounds then past Heather to Vincent who was standing in the doorway in shadow. 

“Now you stop it. Leave Cat alone. I told you she was fine. And you shouldn’t have brought a gun here.” Tess slapped Joe on the shoulder.

Vincent’s deep voice reverberated from behind the group. “Gun?” 

Joe pointed to the bruise marks on Catherine’s arm then squinted at Vincent. “Yeah a gun. It sounded like an episode of Animal Planet Presents Lions Attack in there.”

Tess punched Joe in the shoulder. “That bruise was from me.”

Heather folded her arms. “I like Into the Pride. You invited Tess? Why wasn’t I invited?”

Catherine’s face reddened if that were possible. “I ummm.”

Joe grabbed his shoulder where Tess punched him. “I wasn’t the only one that heard it. She was screaming bloody murder.”

“It wasn’t that bad. I wouldn’t mind going on a safari or trying Bench Tossing. Even hates to travel.” Heather glanced over her shoulder where Vincent’s eyes started to turn gold while his fangs showed. “Awimbawe.”

“Heather…down girl. I wasn’t joining in. It was more of a cock block thing…you should know about that.” Tess put her hand on Joe’s back and started pushing him out of the room. 

Tess stopped at the door and let Vincent move out of the way. “You’re off the hook Simba. You’re not The Ass anymore. We have a new Ass in the Pride.” 

Catherine couldn’t stand it anymore and went into her mother’s study with the flash drive.

“Why did you have to get the flash drive? What’s wrong?” Vincent asked as he pulled the door shut.

“What’s wrong? The camera kept taking pictures after I put it down. That’s what’s wrong. That whole room was about to see both of our asses up on that wall and have a soundtrack from Tess’ cell phone.” 

Catherine stopped talking and sorted the photos using her mother’s computer. 

Vincent smiled. “Everyone knows I’m an ass anyway or was The Ass. Don’t you think it fitting that they should see my ass?”

He stepped behind her and rubbed her tense shoulders as she finished sorting. 

Catherine leaned back into his expert hands. “It’s just a mess.”

“What my ass? I think it looks pretty good.” He pointed to a photo of them stretched out over ferns and moss with the fountain in the background where blue light shone down over their naked bodies.

“Not funny. I mean the situation and you know it.”

“Then we’ll fix it. We’re good at that…saving each other.” Vincent leaned forward and kissed the top of her head when she pulled the flash drive out of the computer. 

Catherine finally smiled. “And other things I guess. Animal Planet?” 

Vincent chuckled and pulled his love into his arms. “I am the Sexy Beast remember?” 

“You’re my Sexy Beast.” 

Vincent spoke with his lips almost touching hers. “And you’re definitely the Beauty.” 

Catherine raised an eyebrow remembering something she had read the night before. “Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining castle.”

Vincent’s eyes danced with golden flame then returned to hazel. “More like a war vet in a dilapidated dungeon.”

Catherine ignored him. “Although he had everything a person could want, he had no love in his heart.”

Vincent placed his hand over hers. “That’s because you weren’t in my life. Not really.” 

“But I am now and you are in mine. The Prince and the Beauty looked into each other’s eyes. As they kissed they knew that they would live happily ever after.”

Vincent pulled her closer. “So no more uhhhh misunderstandings, angry posting or butt dialing. In this story does that make JT the clock guy Cogsworth? Sorry. Am I ruining the moment?”

Catherine kissed him quickly with a smile. “Not anymore than Lumiere busting into the room, tossing me on my side to grab my phone out from under my ass. I think I’ll call her that from now on.”

Vincent tried not to laugh. “Good one, but that’s not a good idea. She’ll think I’m the one who started it, and she’ll be back to calling me The Ass again.”

“Speaking of…” Catherine slid her hand down and gave his a squeeze. “I’m not finished with you yet.”

“And I hope you never will be.” The humor dropped from Vincent’s face as he drowned in Catherine’s eyes as he saw she knew he was not talking about sex. 

“I never will. I love you, too.” Catherine leaned closer toward the man that had fulfilled all of her dreams and chased back the pain and loneliness that had haunted her.

“And I love you too.” Vincent delicately held her against his body as if she were breakable. No one in existence was more precious to him and no one would ever be more important. 

Hearing his deep reverberating voice speaking of love and the heat from his body was too tempting to resist. Catherine wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips firmly to his thankful that all of the current issues had been resolved. 

Vincent inched back. “What about the viewing?”

“They can wait. I want my own personal viewing right now.” Catherine ran her hands over his chest and pressed her hand over his heart. 

Their eyes locked on each other, and they spoke volumes with only a glance. They knew and understood that they had taken back what was lost when Catherine collapsed at the Conservatory. 

They felt the connection which bonded them together. It had been tested, but never failed. It had been strained but never broken. And now, they could sense that it was stronger than before. Somehow managing to work past the conflict strengthened their relationship and the depth of their emotions.

Their bond more than connecting them now. It encased them in an unending sea of protection and love. The depth of their ocean was unfathomable as they slowly undressed each other and rocked in the seductive waves that would eventually carry them once again safe to shore. 

They sailed safely across in each other’s embrace before they returned to the party continuing their lives…together as one.


End file.
